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Marjorie might hold the lantern and he'd see what was there. {Page 167) 



THE 

SURPRISE BOOK 


PATTEN BEARD 

Author of 

“ The Jolly Yearj* “ The Bluebird's Garden " 
“ The Good Crow's Happy Shop " 


Illustrated by Alice Beard 



THE PILGRIM PRESS 


BOSTON 


CHICAGO 



COPTRIQHT 1918 

Bt patten beard 



I 


THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON 

OCT 14 1918 

©CI.A5 0(5154 


^ i ^ k 



THIS BOOK OF STORIES ABOUT THE BOYS AND 
GIRLS WHO ARE MY FRIENDS I DEDICATE TO 


IRall CanMer 

BECAUSE HE HAS ENJOYED “THE BLUEBIRD’S 
GARDEN ’’ AND “ THE JOLLY YEAR,” AND I WANT 
HIM TO HAVE THIS BOOK FOR HIS VERY OWN 



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CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PACE 

I. The Surprise Book that Dotty Made . 3 

II. The December Surprise, The Telephone 

Santa Claus 13 

III. The January Surprise, The Penny Bank 

Window 35 

IV. The February Surprise, Angelina's Val- 

entine 51 

V. The March Surprise, Buttinski, Peace- 
maker 63 

VI . The April Surprise, Angelina's Bird- 

Flower 77 

VII. The May Surprise, Marjorie’s Mystery 91 

VIII. The June Surprise, The Two Little 

Bates Girls 103 

IX. The July Surprise, Arne’s Fourth of 

July Battle 115 

X. The August Surprise, The Blackberry 

Adventure 129 

XI. The September Surprise, Betty Crusoe 147 


VIU CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB PAGE 

XII. The October Surprise, The Magical 

Circle 159 

XIIL The November Surprise, Ermelinda^s 

Family 173 

XIV. The First December Surprise, The Di- 
rectory Santa Claus . . . . 185 

XV. The Second December Surprise, Mary 

Elizabeth’s Soldierly Christmas . 195 

Conclusion 209 


The Surprise Book That 
Dotty Made 




/ 

The Surprise Book That 
Dotty Made 

T he Surprise Book was Marjorie’s, but 
it really belonged to Dotty also, Mar- 
jorie said. It was Dotty who had made 
it once upon a time when she had not been 
able to go to school because of a snowstorm 
and a snuffy cold. The combination of cold 
and snowstorm was more or less a lucky mix- 
ture, so Marjorie argued. At any rate, if it 
had not been for these, maybe there never 
would have been Marjorie’s Surprise Book. 
You shall hear about it. 

It began just after Marjorie, wrapped in 
storm-coat and arctics, had left for school. 
Dotty was sitting upon a carpet hassock by 
the fireside. The fire snapped and crackled 
pleasantly but Dotty frowned. ‘T wanted to 
go to school with Marjorie, too,” she said for 
about the forty-eleventh time since nine 
o’clock. “There isn’t anything to do!” 


4 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


“Nothing to do!” exclaimed Mother. “Why 
not make a Surprise Book, Dot?” 

“How?” inquired Dotty, turning aroimd to 
face Mother in sudden interest. “How?” 

“Oh, it’s quite simple,” Mother returned. 
“You will find it ever so much fun. I used to 
make Surprise Books when I was a little girl. 
They’re made in scrapbooks. You know how 
to make a scrapbook. Dot, don’t you?” 

Dotty nodded. “I just take some brown 
wrapping-paper an’ fold it ever so many times 
an’ then I cut the folds into leaves. When I 
have ever so many leaves, I cut a cover for ’em 
an’ I tie the cover to the leaves with a ribbon. 
It goes through the centre of the book an’ ties 
at the back like a sash.” 

Mother nodded. “That’s it. To make a 
Surprise Book you first make a scrapbook 
that way. Then, one at a time, you fold each 
leaf of the scrapbook twice. You begin by 
taking the first leaf. You fold its upper cor- 
ner down till its edge runs parallel with the 
centre of the scrapbook’s leaves. Then you 
take the lower corner and fold this up in the 
same way. It makes a pocket and one can put 
things into this pocket and seal them tight with 


THE SURPRISE BOOK THAT DOTTY MADE 


5 


a pretty paper seal like those used to seal 
Christmas packages.” 

“What do you do it for?” asked Dotty. 
“Why do you put things into the pockets and 
seal them?” 

Mother laughed. “Why, Dot,” she ex- 
plained. “You put the things into the pockets 
as surprises because you give the Surprise 
Book away to somebody that you love very 
much. Every pocket holds a surprise when 
it is sealed fast. You write on each pocket 
the exact time when it is to be opened and the 
one you love very much must open the pockets 
and find the surprises only when the time falls 
due. Do you see?” 

Dotty beamed. “I see,” she chuckled. 
“I’m going to make a Sm'prise Book right 
a|way. What can I put into it for Marjorie 
to find?” 

There was a silence while Mother rocked 
back and forth in the big old-fashioned rocker 
as she ran her needle in and out of the hole she 
was mending in Marjorie’s stocking, and 
thought. “Suppose you cut nice stories out of 
magazines and put one in each pocket,” she 
suggested. “There’s a pile of story-papers 


6 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


up in the attic. I’ll get them for you. You 
might find twelve stories, one for every month 
of the year, and you might make the Surprise 
Book for Marjorie’s Christmas present.” 

Dotty jumped up and down. “Oh, hurry, 
hurry!” she begged. “I want to begin right 
aNvay. Marjorie will be coming home soon 
and she mustn’t know anything about it. Can 
I put other things into the pockets of the 
Surprise Book too? What can I put in?” 

“All manner of things that, one could put 
into small space like that — picture -cards, 
paper dolls, transfer pictures, little verses and 
games that you find in magazines — ’most 
everything that will lie flat. You can try it 
and think of things to put into the Surprise 
Book’s pockets.” 

Hooray! That was an idea! Dotty knew 
of a flat penwiper that she could make out of 
flannel. That would go in flat — and there 
might be a penny all wrapped up in paper, 
maybe. Such a thing as this would be simply 
a splendid surprise. Each pocket should hold 
something new and wonderful except the 
pocket that was to be for April Fool’s Day. 
That pocket should hold only a blank piece of 


THE SURPRISE BOOK THAT DOTTY MADE 


7 


paper folded up tight to feel as if it were 
going to be a surprise. There’d be nothing at 
all in it, when Marjorie broke the seal! 
What a joke! And every month’s holiday 
should have a pocket, too! Dotty chuckled. 
Old Christmas cards would now find a new 
use. Valentines and Easter gift cards would 
go into the Surprise Book, too. And every 
month there would be a story pocket in the 
book! What fun! As soon as she had made 
the brown paper scrapbook, she fell to work 
folding its leaves — first, top comer over and 
down; next, lower comer up toward it to 
make a three-cornered pocket. The book had 
twenty-four leaves, two surprises for every 
month. First of all, Dotty put the penwiper 
into the first pocket for a Christmas surprise. 
She sealed it with a holly seal. Then into the 
next pocket, she put a January surprise and 
a January story followed. So it went through 
all the year. It was exciting trying to find 
stories that fitted the different months, but 
the story-papers helped because Mother had 
kept them in file, month by month. Dotty 
had only to look the papers over and cut out 
the story she imagined might best please 


8 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Marjorie. She worked very hard indeed. All 
day she worked, while it snowed outside. It 
seemed quite lucky, then, that Marjorie stayed 
away so long. It wasn’t really lonely without 
her! 

And at last, with some help and suggestions 
from Mother, the Surprise Book was done! 
It was a big three-cornered book that seemed 
quite bulky. As Dot held it, she felt that 
Marjorie would surely like it and she couldn’t 
bear to keep it till Christmas. Christmas was 
so far away yet! There were four more days 
till Christmas Eve! But, nevertheless, be- 
cause the Surprise Book was to be a Christ- 
mas present. Mother and Dot did it up, finally, 
in nice, fresh, white tissue paper and tied the 
parcel together with bright red ribbon. It was 
a splendid present! 

When Christmas came, the Surprise Book 
was placed under the tree and Dotty left all 
her own presents while she urged Marjorie to 
open the big package that was tied with red 
ribbons. “You’ll like it,” she laughed. ‘T 
made it for you. It’s a book of surprises that 
last all through the year — it really is a Sur- 
prise Book because there’s so much fun in it !” 


THE SURPRISE ROOK THAT DOTTY MADE 


9 


Then Marjorie tore off the paper and red 
ribbon. When she saw and understood jail 
about it, she said she would make Dotty a 
promise and the promise was that every time 
there fell due a story, she’d read it aloud to 
Dotty each month. 

So, here in this book are the stories that 
Marjorie read to Dotty, the stories that were 
in Marjorie’s Surprise Book, together with 
the penwiper, the Valentine, the St. Patrick’s 
favor for March, the April Fool, the paper 
May-basket, the four-leaf clover for June. 
Beside these, there were a great many other 
nice things that came in the pockets that were 
not filled with the stories. You shall hear 
about them all yourself, as you turn the pages 
here. 



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The Telephone Santa 

Glaus 


THE DECEMBER SURPRISE 

Of course, you know as well as Dotty that 
there was a penwiper in the first Christmas 
pocket. The writing on that pocket said, 

** Not to be opened till after you have seen 
all your presents from the Christmas tree oru 
Christmas Eve/* 

Marjorie liked the penwiper ever so much. 
She said it could he used at school. It was 
made of round red circles of cloth and had a 
button sewed at its centre. The story pocket 
was quite bulky and it said, 

" Open on Christmas Eve for a bed-time 
story/* 

Marjorie read it aloud as she and Dot 
curled up in a big cosy comfortable at bed- 
time. They Jiad to have a very special dis- 
pensation from Mother, She said that the 
Surprise Book story that came on Christmas 
Eve might keep the bed-time light lit till it 
was finished. So Marjorie read aloud, ^^The 
Telephone Santa Claus, 


II 

The Telephone Santa 
Claus 

T he shops were full of Christmas 
toys. There were Christmas greens 
and fir trees everywhere. Big ribbon- 
trimmed holly wreaths began to appear in 
front windows and everybody in the streets 
carried Christmas bundles. At this time, too, 
Mary Louise, who lived in the large and 
beautiful house with mother and daddy, and 
who was the only little girl they had, began 
to plan what she should ask Santa Claus to 
bring her. 

Can anybody ever have too many toys? 
Mary Louise had a whole toy closet full. 
There were certain ‘Very best toys” put by 
nurse on the top shelf for special occasions 
and there were countless “every day toys,” 
some of them a bit broken, but a great many 
of them quite whole and splendid, ever so 


14 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


much nicer than the toys that Mary Louise’s 
little friends had to play with. Still, Mary 
Louise wanted more toys. The list that she 
was now writing in her roimd, wiggly hand- 
writing had already covered several sheets of 
large pad paper that nurse had given her. 

Mary Louise sat at the big flat desk in the 
library. Her velvet dress was almost lost in 
the big arm-chair that was daddy’s favorite. 
Behind her was a cheerful fire on the hearth 
and it snapped and crackled joyously. Mary 
Louise’s blue eyes travelled about the room as 
if seeking fresh inspiration in the objects that 
they rested upon. She already had every- 
thing, but she wanted more, and so she put 
the pencil on the paper and continued the 
letter to Santa Claus. 

“I want two new Teddy bears, the biggest 
you have, Santa Claus,” the pencil said. ‘T 
want one that is pure white like snow and 
another that is furry and brown. Both should 
have a squeak and if you have any that will 
growl, I’d like that kind, too. 

‘T want a white doll carriage lined with 
pink satin. They have them at Bunty’s 
Department Store, for I saw them once and 


THE TELEPHONE SANTA CLAUS 


15 


they cost twenty-five dollars. I want a big 
doll to go in it. I want a whole wardrobe of 
clothes for it, a new doll cradle, and it must 
have a pink silk dress, too. I want a doll that 
will open and shut its eyes — one with real 
hair. It must talk, too. 

“You can bring me, beside this, a boy doll 
with a sled and all the different kinds of 
clothes that a little boy ought to wear. I want 
a real toy automobile with a horn and a lamp 
— not the kind that is like a tricycle, because I 
already have one like that — I mean the real 
kind that runs with gasoline. They cost a 
hundred and twenty-five dollars, maybe a 
little more, but I don’t think you mind what 
they cost. 

“I want a doll house that is nicer than the 
one you gave me before. It ought to be big 
enough for me to go into myself and I would 
like to have it built up in the garden like a real 
house. You can put it down by the green- 
houses because it will be too big to bring into 
our house or carry down the chimney, I know. 
And then too I want — ” 

Mary Louise’s blue eyes considered the ceil- 
ing for a space of time: “I want a ring like 


16 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


mother’s — one with a blue stone in it,” she 
added. While she was trying to think of 
something else to ask for, the door of the 
library opened and in walked Mary Louise’s 
big daddy. He glanced for a minute at Mary 
Louise and he took up the telephone. 

Mary Louise’s daddy was busy there several 
minutes. He watched Mary Louise nibbling 
the end of her pencil and he looked over her 
shoulder at the letter. As he did so, a smile 
crossed his face. “Writing to Santa Claus, 
Mary Louise?” he asked when he put down 
the receiver. 

“I was wondering what to ask for next,” 
Mary Louise informed him. “I think I’ll ask 
for another pony. Nibbles is very nice, of 
course, but I’d rather like one that will trot 
faster. I think I’d like a white pony with a 
white kid harness and a white basket-cart.” 

“You’re asking for a great many things, 
aren’t you?” daddy suggested. “Maybe it 
might be well to close the letter now. I’ll take 
it with me and mail it on the way down town 
— better address the envelope.” 

“I might think of something more,” remon- 
strated Mary Louise. But she folded the six 


THE TELEPHONE SANTA CLAUS 


17 


sheets of pad paper and put them into the 
envelope that daddy held out. Then she 
addressed it to Mr. Santa Claus, Santa Claus 
Land, Santa Claus Country, North Pole, 
exactly as nurse had told her. 

Daddy put it into his overcoat pocket as 
Mary Louise had seen him put letters that he 
posted for mother. Then as the library door 
closed, she plumped herself down upon the 
thick black fur rug in front of the fire to look 
at a picture book. 

She had not been there very long when the 
telephone bell rang. James didn’t come as he 
ought and Marie was upstairs, so Mary Louise 
incommoded herself by getting up from the 
rug to answer it. It had already rung three 
times and she was quite ready to scold Marie 
for not answering it. But she did not have 
the chance as Marie still did not come. So 
Mary Louise took up the receiver. “Hello!” 
she called. 

“Hello,” came a cheery answer. 

“What is it?” inquired Mary Louise. 

“I want to talk to Miss Mary Louise 
Snow,” came the answer. “I’m Santa Claus.” 

“Oh, I’m her!” gasped Mary Louise. “I’m 


18 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


— I’^m her!” Never before had Santa Claus 
called Mary Louise up by telephone! Never 
had she spoken to him except for a few brief 
minutes at a Christmas party celebration. 

‘‘You are,” returned the voice. “Well, I’m 
glad you are at home, Mary Louise. There’s 
something very special that I want to talk 
about. It’s almost time for me to receive your 
usual Christmas letter. I suppose there are a 
great many things that you will want. Have 
you been a good little girl this year?” 

“Sometimes,” Mary Louise faltered. “I 
have tried very hard not to have tantrums. 
Maybe I did once or twice but I tried not to 
say things when Marie would unsnarl my 
hair.” 

“Have you learned your multiplication 
tables?” 

“Up to sevens,” answered Mary Louise. 
“I think I can say them, but I can’t always re- 
member what seven times nine is and I forget 
seven times twelve.” 

“That sounds as if you had tried fairly 
well,” the voice of Santa Clause commented. 
“There are a great many Christmas presents 
that you would like, I suppose?” 


THE TELEPHONE SANTA CLAUS 


19 


“Yes,” returned Mary Louise, “Oh, yes, 
Santa Claus! I just wrote you my letter 
and I hadn’t quite finished it when daddy 
came in and took it to mail, so maybe I’ll write 
another later on. I didn’t ask for any games 
or things. I might send another letter when 
I think of what I want. If you like, I will 
tell you the things that I asked for in my first 
letter if I can remember them. I want a big, 
big doll that can talk, and it must have real 
hair and shut and open its eyes and it must 
have blue eyes and real eye-lashes too. I 
asked for a pink silk dress and gloves, I think 
— I can’t remember. And there were to be two 
big Teddy bears with a growl and a squeak 
both — very big bears, one pure white and the 
other furry and brown. I want a white pony, 
too, and a white cart and harness. The letter 
will tell you all about that — I forget all that 
I said in the letter,” she explained. “It was 
’most six pages long of big pad paper.” 

“That was rather long,” chuckled Santa 
Claus. 

“Yes,” smiled Mary Louise, “but I think I 
forgot to say that I wanted gloves for the 
doll.” 


20 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


“I’m not sure I can bring the gloves,” Santa 
Claus said. “I think, however, that I might 
get the doll to you. Would you rather have 
a doll than the two Teddy bears?” 

“I want hoth/^ replied Mary Louise. It 
seemed strange that Santa Claus should not 
understand a thing, as simple as that! “Teddy 
bears are very po-pular, I know, but I guess 
you must have ever so many and you’ve 
usually brought me nicer things than you’ve 
given other little girls that I know.” 

“Well, maybe I can bring a Teddy bear, if 
there’s one left over, Mary Louise, but I’m 
not at all sure I can bring the pony this year, 
you know. I’m afraid I’ve got to cut down 
on your presents, Mary Louise. That’s why 
I called up. I have something very, very 
important to ask you. I want to know if you 
can help me? I’m trying to distribute my gifts 
more — ^more properly this year. You know, 
of course, Mary Louise, that there are ever so 
many little children that do not get Christmas 
presents, especially in war time.” 

“Are there?” inquired Mary Louise. “I 
suppose it’s the children who have been 
naughty.” 


THE TELEPHONE SANTA CLAUS 


21 


‘‘Oh, no.” 

“What is it, then?” 

“It’s not because I forget them or because 
they are naughty,” explained Santa Claus’ 
voice. “It’s because too many goodies go to 
the rich little children. Then the poor little 
children who would like toys — ^they have 
nothing.” 

“Oh,” gasped Mary Louise. “Then, I 
suppose you’ve given me more than my 
share?” 

“I’m afraid so,” answered Santa. 

“Don’t the poor children have anything?'' 

“Sometimes I’ve given to the wrong peo- 
ple,” came the evasive answer. “You see, I 
have a great deal to do. I ought to have a lot 
of people to help me. How can one person do 
it all! Sometimes I don’t find the right chil- 
dren and I use up the things that grow in the 
Santa Claus Land and then I have nothing 
left after the long, long lists are made up for 
the very particular little rich children.” / 

“Oh, dearl” 

“Yes, that’s why. Do you want to give up 
some of your things this year so that they can 
go to the poor children?” 


22 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Mary Louise reflected. ‘‘Which?” she 
asked. “Do you mean the doll or the pony or 
the automobile or the new doll house?” 

“You have about a hundred dolls, haven’t 
you?” 

“No,” corrected Mary Louise, “only just 
seventy-six, counting the little bits of china 
ones in the doll house. Without these there 
are about forty — but only twenty are big 
ones.” 

“Well,” chuckled Santa Claus, “that seems 
to me a good deal too many. You could give 
up the doll, I think. Suppose that you were a 
little girl who had never had any doll ever!” 

“Well, but I’d like the pink doll — ” 

“I’ll tell you what,” Santa Claus suggested. 
“You think things over. Maybe I’ll find that 
I can spare a pink doll for you, after all. But 
I want you to help me look out for some of the 
poor children this year and I want you to buy 
at least six presents out of your very own 
money. I want you to find some children that 
I ought to know about. I want you to help 
them for me. I’ll telephone you some 
addresses where there are little poor children 
and you must write these down and keep them 


THE TELEPHONE SANTA CLAUS 


23 


and see that the boys and girls have proper 
Christmas presents. Will you do it?” 

“bh, yes, Mr. Santa Claus, gladly,” re- 
turned Mary Louise. “I have nineteen dol- 
lars in my bank, I think. My daddy will help 
me.” 

“No, I don’t want your daddy to help you. 
It’s to be your very own money!” 

“All right. I’ll not ask him. Of course 
I want to help you, Mr. Santa Claus. I’ll 
love to do it.” 

“Well, good-bye. If I can. I’ll come on 
Christmas eve to your tree. You do the very 
best you can, Mary Louise, and invite the poor 
children to share your tree!” 

The receiver was hung up at the other end 
of the line and Mary Louise stood bewildered 
before the library table where she had just 
written her long Christmas list. She stood 
there thinking it all over from beginning to 
end. She, she had been asked to help Santa 
Claus! It was a great distinction! Poor 
overworked Santa Claus had appealed to her 
as a very rich little girl who already had every- 
thing — and she mightn’t get the pink doll at 
all! 


24 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Then Mary Louise could not keep the secret 
any longer and she dashed up the stairs to 
mother’s room. She wouldn’t let mother go 
out of the room till she had told her the whole 
story and mother had a very important en- 
gagement and was all ready to go out in the 
car. Together they emptied Mary Louise’s 
bank and counted out exactly nineteen dollars 
and fifty-three cents. Mary Louise wanted 
to take it and start right out in the car to buy 
the presents, but with difficulty mother ex- 
plained that she had better wait till Santa 
Claus sent in the names and she had found out 
what the children wanted. 

And Santa Claus did telephone the names. 
Mary Louise was at dinner and James 
answered the telephone. Mary Louise felt 
badly that she had not been called, but there 
was no need to take her away from dinner; 
James had the addresses on the telephone pad, 
mother said. She was sure they were right. 

Mary Louise wished daddy were home. It 
seemed to her that he would never come. As 
she felt sure s'he would need to buy a tree for 
the Christmas party, she got nurse to take her 
to that shop in the afternoon. But it is won- 


THE TELEPHONE SANTA CLAUS 


25 


derful to think that a Christmas tree costs 
money! Before this, Mary Louise had never 
considered the subject. It was a very tall tree 
and it was an expensive tree. The charge for 
it ate into the nineteen dollars and fifty-three 
cents considerably. The things that went 
onto the tree must all be new. Santa Claus 
must see that Mary Louise had bought new 
ones to please him. So she bought ever so 
many — stars and birds, and balls of red, yel- 
low, blue, green, white, silver, gold. And 
there was need of tinsel. If Mary Louise had 
had her own way, she would have spent almost 
all the nineteen dollars and fifty-three cents 
just on that tree without thinking of the con- 
sequences. Why, if she had, how could she 
have bought any presents for the poor 
children? 

Next day, after having told daddy all about 
it, she wrote to the addresses that Santa Claus 
had given her. She wrote the letters in ink 
and used her very bestest best blue note-paper. 
All the letters were sealed with a Santa Claus 
sticker. It did take a great deal of time, I 
assure you. 

The invitations were to Mamie and J ohnnie 


26 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


and Toby Smith. They were to Tony Pettino 
and Lily Wicks and Benny Wicks who lived 
in a part of the city Mary Louise had never 
seen. Nurse said it was a very sad part of the 
city. When Mary Louise asked if she might 
go there and see it and see the children, nurse 
said she guessed Santa Claus didn’t know 
what he was talking about — she guessed not, 
Malry Louise insisted, but all in vain. Santa 
Claus had told her what the children’s ages 
were and left the gifts to Mary Louise’s 
selection. 

When daddy had taken the letters to the 
poor children in his overcoat pocket to mail, 
Mary Louise fell to planning about the gifts. 
Only one little girl — all boys! How dreadful! 
But mother helped Mary Louise by suggest- 
ing things that little boys might like. From 
her own playthings Mary Louise selected her 
biggest doll for Lily and would have given 
her ever so many other dolls, had not 
mother thought that Mary Louise might add 
other little girls to her Christmas list of poor 
children and make the helping of Santa Claus 
more equally distributed among those who 
might otherwise be forgotten. 


THE TELEPHONE SANTA CLAUS 


27 


How fast the nineteen dollars and fifty- 
three cents did go — just buying the tree and 
the fixings, and the sled and the overcoat and 
mittens, and skates, and carts, and baseball 
bats! It was a tragic moment when Mary 
Louise suddenly discovered that Benny had 
been neglected and didn’t have as many gifts 
as the others. She consulted daddy, as there 
were no boys’ toys among her playthings and 
nothing seemed right. Daddy said — ^well, he 
said she might work and earn the money to 
buy Benny a present. 

Never in her life had Mary Louise worked 
to earn money! “How can I earn money?” 
she asked. 

Daddy thought. “If you will learn the 
seven times seven table, and the eight, and the 
nine and any of the others. I’ll give you a 
dollar for every one you can say perfectly. 
That’s very special, Mary Louise, because it’s 
Christmas, you know.” 

Dear me ! To think of having to sit down 
quietly in all the excitement of Christmas rush 
and learn horrid multiplication tables ! If 
anything was work, that surely was! 

But where there’s a will there’s a way and 


28 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Mary Louise did it. She did it so well that 
she remembered all of the seven table per- 
fectly. She also went on and learned the eight 
and nine table and the ten table — that was 
easy. Then, being quite enthusiastic, she 
tried hard at the others and mastered the 
twelve table after keeping at it a steady day. 
With the proceeds of these earnings, paid 
gravely by daddy, she was able to buy Benny 
a game, and when she went to buy it and 
found soime little poor children right by the 
car that stopped at the entrance of Bunty’s 
Department Store, she was able to invite them 
then and there and go right in and buy pres- 
ents for them. They needed woolen scarfs 
and mittens, and Mary Louise had found 
presents on the toy shelf among the toys kept 
for very special occasions. These would do 
for them. 

When once Mary Louise had started to 
help Santa Claus, there was no knowing where 
she would end. Whenever she went out, she 
saw little cliildren whom she was sure Santa 
Claus had forgotten because they looked so 
wistfully in at shop windows. Some of them 
nurse let her speak to and she added these to 


THE TELEPHONE SANTA CLAUS 


29 


her list for the party. There seemed to be no 
table of thirteens to learn but daddy gave a 
dollar for every poem she could recite and 
Mary Louise knew ever so many and it was 
easy to learn short ones. 

Oh, dear! Oh, dear! How the time did fly! 
Before Mary Louise knew it, Christmas Eve 
was there! There had been all the fun of 
fixing the tree and daddy and mother had 
helped. Mary Louise hoped Santa Claus 
wouldn’t disappoint her! She hoped that he 
surely would come! She was very much re- 
lieved when James came in and said that he 
had just been asked to deliver a message that 
came from Santa Claus over the telephone. 
It was a telegram and it said: 


Will be at your Christmas party Christmas 
Eve eight o’clock. 


Santa Claus. 


After that, Mary Louise didn’t worry. She 
let Marie take the tangles out of her hair and 
help her into her very best pink silk dress 
and then she dashed downstairs to wait for 
all the guests who had been invited to come. 
She wanted to play games with them and she 


30 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


\ 


wanted to tell them all about Santa Claus and 
she hoped they would like to sing carols 
and dance around the tree — ^but most of all 
she hoped that they would like the presents she 
had arranged for them at Santa Claus’ sug- 
gestion. Oh, wouldn’t it be fun to see Santa 
Claus give out the big white Teddy bear and 
the big brown fuzzy bear and the pink doll 
and the cart and the skates and — and — 

But here the doorbell rang and there was 
a scuffle of happy feet. It was Lily and 
Benny and Tony and all the rest. They were 
as happy as happy could be. Mary Louise 
greeted them all and then they beamed upon 
her almost as if she were Santa Claus herself, 
but I just wish you could have heard the 
shrieks of dehght when the front doorbell 
rang and James ushered in Santa Claus him- 
self! It was just too bad that daddy wasn’t 
there to see all the fun, though mother did 
hope that maybe he might be able to come 
later. Oh, what a good time they all did 
have! It was the very best and happiest 
Christmas that Mary Louise had ever, ever, 
ever had! It was wonderful! 

Why, Mary Louise had such a good time 


THE TELEPHONE SANTA CLAUS 31 

that she forgot all about the pink doll till 
Santa Claus came and gave it to her, after 
giving out all the other gifts. It was the very 
doll that Mary Louise had wanted, but she 
asked Santa Claus to be sure he could spare 
it and that he had neglected nobody else to 
give her the doll. He said he guessed not — 
at least he hoped not, and then they sat on the 
sofa and ate ice cream together while Santa 
Claus joked and told stories. But he couldn’t 
stay very long, he said, and he had to go. 
Then just afterwards, alas, in came daddy, 
who might have met Santa Claus, if only he 
had got there a wee bit sooner! And the 
children danced around the tree and sang 
carols. And then they all wished Mary 
Louise a Happy Christmas and went home 
with arms laden with packages that they 
hugged tight and smiled and chuckled over. 

After the children went, there was just 
mother and daddy left. They both kissed 
Mary Louise and vowed that they’d have 
another party again next year, maybe. Then 
daddy took Mary Louise upon his knee and 
put a little blue ring upon her finger. It was 
the kind of a ring that Mary Louise had 


32 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


wanted — one just like mother’s, only little. 
And mother told Mary Louise that her Christ- 
mas present was the doll house. It was com- 
ing as soon as possible. It was so big that one 
could play inside and it was to be placed right 
close to the garden greenhouses. 

It was a Christmas that Mary Louise never 
forgot and couldn’t forget, even if it had not 
been for the blue ring and the multiplication 
tables ! 


The Penny Bank Window 


THE JANUARY SURPRISE 


The January surprise pocket had held a 
little picture calendar, Marjorie had opened 
it according to directions that said: 

" Open sometime when you want to write a 
letter/^ ' 

As there was a Christmas thank-you letter 
to write upon the very first day of January, 
Marjorie had opened that pocket and found 
the calendar. Then she had looked to see just 
when she might open the story pocket. The 
writing on this one said: 

** Open on some Saturday afternoon when you 
are sitting hy the fire/* 

The very first Saturday afternoon that 
came in January, Marjorie took the Surprise 
Book and went to the fireside. She could not 
wait to find out what was in the story pocket. 
She told Dotty that the time had come for the 
story and Dotty curled happily at her feet on 
the rug while she read ‘'The Penny Bank 
Window^^ that was the January story. 


Ill 


The Penny Bank Window 

T hat penny bank is to blame for it all,” 
said Billy Williams. “If it hadn’t been 
for the bank, nothing would have hap- 
pened.” The bank was quite full of pennies 
that Billy had been saving carefully ever since 
his birthday. It had been given him then with 
nine times nine bright pennies to put into it. 
That was because Billy was nine years old. 

One afternoon Billy took up the china bank 
and shook it to hear it rattle. Really, when 
the bank rattled, it made Billy feel tremen- 
dously rich. There was almost a whole dollar 
in the bank by now! But right here, out fell 
one dull penny and it rolled along the floor. 

Billy let it roll till it stopped and the rattle 
of the bank seemed quite as big without the 
missing penny, so he suddenly decided to 
spend it — but for what? Why, just at that 
very minute, Billy felt hungry. Mother was 


36 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


off at work and would not be home to get their 
dinner till six. Billy was all alone in the 
rooms over the drygoods shop where he lived 
with his mother. He had eaten the bread and 
butter that she left out for his lunch and he 
was hungry. It suddenly dawned upon him 
that he wanted a lollypop and that he could 
find a nice, sweet, red one at the candy store 
around the corner. ‘‘All right!” beamed Billy. 
He put the dull penny in his pocket and raced 
off to get the lollypop. 

If it hadn’t been for the bank, there would 
not have been the lollypop. If it had not been 
for the lollypop, there would have been no 
penny bank window. So, you see, the bank 
responsible. Hardly had Billy bought 
the red lollypop and tom the paper off than 
he became quite absorbed in eating it — and he 
stepped down from the curb at the street cor- 
ner quite without looking. It was a careless 
thing to do, for he didn’t see what was coming. 
What was coming happened to be an auto- 
mobile that rounded the corner without toot- 
ing its horn! 

The doctor felt Billy all over and pro- 
nounced him a very lucky boy indeed. “There 


THE PENNY BANK WINDOW 


37 


might have been nothing left of you, my son,” 
said he. “But there happens to be a good deal 
left in spite of the fact that your foot got 
bumped into. You’ll have to keep quiet for 
a while; then you’ll be as good as new.” 

“I suppose I mightn’t be so lucky another 
time,” grinned Billy, “but I guess I’ll be more 
careful in crossing streets. It’s the fault of 
the lollypop.” But it didn’t seem very lucky 
to be hurt and have to sit all day in a chair 
while mother was away. It was fearfully 
lonely. Even though Mrs. Finger from the 
next-door flat brought in magazines and two 
picture books ; even though, after school, some 
of the boys came in to play checkers and dom- 
inoes and they stayed as long as they could 
when they really wanted to be outdoors with 
the other kids. Even though Billy learned 
to knit for the soldiers; even though he 
snipped pillows for the Red Cross, it was 
frightfully lonely till mother came home from 
work. 

After he watched the children pass on their 
way to school one morning, his eyes roved 
across the yard where the leafless trees beyond 
shut off the view of the roofs of other houses. 


38 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Below in the quiet street hopped sparrows. It 
was cold out there and they found nothing to 
eat. Billy bent forward and lifted the win- 
dow. From his breakfast tray that mother 
had left, he took a slice of bread and 
tossed it far out. The sparrows darted for it 
and chirped and twittered. Billy laughed. 
“Don’t I wish they’d come up here to the 
window,” he sighed. “Guess I’ll try it an’ 
see if they will.” And there was one venture- 
some sparrow who did come! Billy was 
still watching him when the doctor came for 
his morning visit. 

“If I were you, Billy Williams, I’d start a 
bird window,” the doctor suggested. “My 
little girl knows all about bird windows and 
she’s made several at home. The birds come 
every day. That foot looks as if it were doing 
well — suppose I ask my little girl to come in 
and make you a bird window?” 

Billy said he’d like it jim dandy. It really 
was awfully lonesome. !N'othing ever passed 
in the street. If there were birds to watch, 
it would be fun. “You won’t forget about the 
bird window,” he cautioned, as the doctor took 


THE PENNY BANK WINDOW 


39 


up his grip to go. And the doctor said he 
surely wouldn’t. 

Knitting progressed that day rather slowly. 
All Billy’s bread went into the street to the 
sparrows. But Billy had reached almost as far 
as the end of his gray muffler in the afternoon 
— and the boys had come in from school for a 
hasty, “Hello, kid, we’re glad you’re alive and 
gay! We can’t stop because — ” Yes, of 
course, they couldn’t come every day but it 
was lonesome. Then there came a knock at 
the door and in came a little girl. She was as 
bright and cheerful as her crimson cloak. 

“Hello,” she greeted. “If you’re the boy 
that ate the loUypop and got run into, I know 
all about you. I’m the doctor’s little girl. I 
came to help you make a bird window — bird 
windows are my specialty, you know,” she 
laughed. 

“I’ve got some money, if you need to buy 
anything,” Billy announced. “I want a real 
jim dandy window! You’ll make me a nice 
one, won’t you? I like birds and animals, 
don’t you? I never had any pets but I always 
did want a bird or something. Maybe I can 


40 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


tame the birds when they come to my window. 
How do you fix it?” 

“Well, you have to have a shelf of some 
kind — a box that is shallow will make that/^ 
explained the doctor’s little girl. “I brought 
some nails and a hammer with me and I 
brought a lump of suet that the cook gave me. 
She sometimes won’t give it to me but this 
time I told her about you and she gave it 
without another word. She says she’s sorry 
for you and so’m I. I’m going to fix you 
up a splendid window.” 

The doctor’s little girl thrust up the sash 
of Billy Williams’ window. “I’m awfully 
hard up,” she pursued, “or I’d have bought 
some sunflower seed to bring with me. You 
ought to have sunflower seed to sprinkle on 
your bird-shelf, for it brings the chickadees 
and the purple finches and ever so many other 
kinds of birds. The woodpeckers come for 
the suet and if you have peanuts, beautiful 
big blue jays will come and carry them off. 
Could I have twenty cents to buy sunflower 
seed, do you suppose? It costs ten cents a 
pound at the druggist’s.” 

Billy showed her the penny bank and they 


THE PENNY BANK WINDOW 


41 


shook it and shook it till there was really more 
money than twenty cents — “If it hadn’t been 
for the bank, I’d have been running about 
now,” Billy grumbled. “That bank’s got to 
give me something nice now anyhow!” 

“Well, I’m shaking it to punish it,” laughed 
the doctor’s little girl. “I’m shaking it ever 
so hard. I don’t believe it likes to be shaken. 
You did have ever so much money in it. I 
don’t wonder that you wanted the lollypop!” 

She slipped the money into her purse and 
went off to make purchases. Billy told her to 
get anything that the money would buy. He 
wanted a bird window that would be the best 
anybody could have. He waited anxiously 
for her to come back and when she came, her 
arms were full. 

Billy had to laugh. She had a small ever- 
green tree that she had bought for thirty-five 
cents. She had two pounds of sunflower seed 
that had cost twenty cents — oh, ever so much 
seed comes for that price and it will last a 
long time, too. She had a shallow grocery box 
that was long and flat and without any cover. 
It was about the length of Billy’s window 
ledge. She had a package that came from the 


42 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


ten cent store. When it was undone, it showed 
two tin strainers at five cents apiece. Now, 
what did all this mean? i 

The doctor’s little girl rolled up her sleeves 
and put on Billy Williams’ mother’s blue 
gin^am apron. First, she took the shallow 
grocery box and nailed it to the window ledge. 
Billy was surprised to see that the doctor’s 
httle girl could drive a long nail almost as 
well as he himself! 

“That’s the bird-shelf,” she explained. 
“You sprinkle sunfiower seed on it every day. 
The birds can light on its rim. Some days 
you’ll have as many as twenty at a time. The 
chickadees are darling and the purple finches 
are beautiful and they sing too.” 

She took a handful of striped gray and 
white sunflower seed and sprinkled it on 
Billy’s new bird-shelf. “You’ll have to wait 
a while till the birds find out about the shelf,” 
she said, “but it doesn’t take them long.” 
Then she took the little green fir tree and some 
stout cord. She tied the wee tree to one side 
of Billy’s blind. She tied its trunk at top and 
at bottom with several twists of heavy string. 
It made the window pretty — almost as if one 


THE PENNY BANK WINDOW 


43 


were looking out over the top of a fir tree. 
The doctor’s little girl paused after her work 
and smiled at Billy. ‘T think that’s nice, don’t 
you?” she asked. 

Billy nodded. “What’s it for?” he inquired. 

“You tie bits of suet lumps to its limbs,” 
she explained. “The birds will light on the 
branches. Suppose you cut up the suet into 
two or three-inch lumps. Tie string around 
each and tie the lumps to the different 
branches. Can you do it?” 

Yes, Billy could. The little girl had to help 
a bit, but not so very much. 

“The strainers are to be tacked up. You 
put seed into them. When it rains, the seed 
doesn’t get soaked. Birds don’t like the 
soaked seed, you know.” The strainers went 
at the other side of Billy’s blind, opposite the 
fir tree. 

It seemed as if the bird windotw was all 
done but it wasn’t! The doctor’s little girl 
took a good-sized tree-twig that she had 
brought, and nailed this against the window 
frame to make a perch. There were three 
perches made this way. She put them near 
the two strainers and tied suet to each perch. 


44 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


She said that the woodpeckers would come to 
these tree-perches ; they didn’t come to the fir- 
tree because — ^well, woodpeckers couldn’t. 

When all this was done, the doctor’s little 
girl took something else from her pocket. It 
was what Billy thought — bird-seed. It was 
a mixture of seed : millet, wheat, rape, cracked 
corn. She said that one could get it mixed at 
a grain store — eight cents a pound. If Billy 
wanted her to, she’d buy some and bring it to 
him tomorrow, but for today all was done. 

It was twih^t and almost dark by now, so 
they shut down the window. The birds must 
all have gone off to shelter. It was too late 
to expect anything of the bird window that 
day, but the doctor’s little girl promised to put 
a bit of suet on a bush under Billy’s window 
as she went home. It was to attract the birds 
and call attention to the window. 

That night when mother came home, she 
thought the bird window a splendid thing. 
Billy dreamed of it all night. Indeed, he 
could not wait for morning to come. He 
woke at four o’clock and kept wondering if 
any birds would come. Then, because he was 
so drowsy, he fell asleep. He woke with a 


THE PENNY BANK WINDOW 


45 


sudden start just at sunrise. Was it true? — 
Yes, yes! Knock-knock-knock I What kind 
of bird was it? There was a bird at the suet 
that was tied to the perch at the window. 
That must be it I Billy sat up in bed and bent 
forward to look. There on the perch that was 
highest was a black and white bird with a 
bright scarlet cap — it was brother woodpecker 
busy eating a breakfast of suet! 

My, how exciting! Billy hardly dared to 
draw a breath, he was so afraid that the wood- 
pecker would see him and fly away. Billy had 
hardly been in his chair near the window for 
more than a few minutes when there was a 
flutter of wings and a strange little slate-gray 
bird lit upon another perch and circled it, 
making queer, cheerful little noises. The bird 
had a black head and it seemed full of sociable 
curiosity. Billy wondered what it was. He 
did not remember ever to have seen a bird like 
it before! He resolved to ask the doctor’s 
little girl what it was. And then came wee 
little birds that called dee-dee-dee. They were 
the chickadees, little gray birds with black 
hoods. They seemed very tame. They came 
in a cluster and besieged the limbs of the little 


46 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


green fir tree. While they were there, came 
birds like sparrows, too. They were not 
sparrcyws though — some of them were rosy red 
in color. Oh, they must be what the doctor’s 
little girl had called purple finches ! My, how 
exciting! How they quarreled! What fun! 
They were all over the bird-shelf, eating the 
striped sunfiower seed in a very hungry way. 
When a big blue jay came screaming toward 
a near-by tree, they flew off in a hurry and 
the blue jay with his crest acock carefully 
reconnoitered the premises and decided to eat 
from the bird-shelf too. Oh, wasn’t it gay! 
When the doctor came, he quite agreed that 
it was jolly and he brought a bird book from 
his little girl and a package of the mixed seed 
that he laughingly called “medicine.” 

It must have been medicine, for Billy’s foot, 
so the doctor claimed, grew well in a wonder- 
fully rapid manner from this time on. And the 
time passed so quickly at the bird window 
that really the days went by before Billy had 
time to be lonely. The birds were great com- 
pany. The same ones came from day to day 
— the little Miss Chickadees were the tamest. 
They really learned to take shelled peanuts 


THE PENNY BANK WINDOW 


47 


from Billy’s fingers and to sit upon his warm 
hand while they ate. Brother Woodpecker 
and his wife came early. They needed no 
alarm clock to wake them. Billy heard the 
knock-knock before he was in his chair of a 
morning. Then the curious little nuthatches, 
— those strange little gray birds with the 
funny noise that sounded like quack, quack — 
they came, too, regularly. In snow and sleet 
and rain and sun, Billy had his bird friends. 
He had the doctor’s little girl, too, some days. 
They sat by the window and played games 
while she told him all she knew about birds. 
Then, when his foot got so well that the doctor 
let him go out, Billy’s first trip was to the 
drugstore to buy more sunflower seed with 
her. 

Everybody came to see Billy’s window and 
the fame of it spread far and wide. Billy 
always declared afterwards that it had almost 
been worth the red lollypop accident, but it 
was the penny bank that really did it all, you 
know! 



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Angelina’s Valentine 


THE FEBRUARY SURPRISE 


Of course, anybody might guess that the 
valentine card came in the first pocket of the 
Surprise Book in February, It did! It was 
a red heart cut from bright red paper and it 
had a verse upon it, too. The story for Feb- 
ruary was a valentine story, too. It was in a 
pocket that was sealed with an embossed rose. 
The writing said: 

" Op&n after school at 3.S0 on Valentine*s 
Day afternoon.** 

Marjorie and Dotty watched the clock till 
the exact seconds had ticked. Then, with the 
arm of her own V alentine about her, Marjorie 
read aloud the story of '"Angelina's Valen- 
tine." 


IV 

Angelina’s Valentine 

T he ten cent store was the first to show 
valentines. On the very first day of 
February, its windows were filled with 
bright red hearts and wonderful pictures 
made with lacy gilt papers. Some were of 
little birds and some were of little boys and 
little girls, and there was one that showed a 
sleek gray pussy-cat like the one that belonged 
to the Parillo family. Twice a day, coming 
to school and returning home, Maria, Louisa 
and Angelina passed by the beautiful valen- 
tines in that window. 

“Maria,” begged Louisa, “let us go in — 
just a little minute! We need not go right 
home today!” 

“Please,” wheedled Angelina. “Please, 
Maria, do let us !” 

“Valentine’s Day is still a long way off,” 
returned Maria. “There is work to be done 


52 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


at home. I must see to the fire and wash and 
iron Angelina’s dress and then get supper. 
We cannot stop.” This was the way it hap- 
pened every afternoon that the three little 
Italian girls passed homeward from school. 
It was Maria who had taken her mother’s 
place. She was the mother of the family now. 
Was it not she who cooked, washed, cleaned? 
Was it not she who with twelve years of 
wisdom governed Louisa and Angelina? Did 
not her father trust her to do the marketing? 
Maria with her duties at home was superior 
to valentines. Valentines were meant for 
children. Maria was duty bound, and so every 
day the three little Parillos marched past the 
ten cent store without stopping to go in. 
They lived in the three rooms of the brown 
tenement on the outskirts of the town. There 
was a corner to turn after one had passed by 
the ten cent store. Often Louisa and little 
Angelina hung back and peeped in at the 
valentines, waiting till Maria should reach 
the corner. Then they dashed after her lest 
she turn and scold, “Angelina and Louisa, 
come at once ! There is no time to loiter. The 
fire in the stove will have gone out if you do not 


Angelina’s valentine 


53 


hurry. It will take time to build another and 
the rooms will be cold — come, I say!” 

“We saw them,” Louisa would announce, 
almost out of breath, quite as if Maria were 
interested. “If I were rich and had money I 
would buy the valentine that is beautiful with 
red roses. I would give it to my teacher at 
school.” 

“And I would buy more than one,” 
Angelina would smile. “There is one of a 
pussy-cat like ours. I would give it to 
Marguerite Santos and I would give her many 
others beside.” 

“The idea!” Maria interrupted. “Marguer- 
ite Santos! The unmannerly child! She is 
a class behind you in school and you do not 
know her. The Santos think themselves bet- 
ter than the Parillos and they will not let her 
play with you — all because their father has a 
fruit store with candy and peanuts and a 
telephone !” 

“It is because Angelina has the cross teacher 
this year that she wants to give valentines 
to Marguerite,” suggested Louisa. “Her 
teacher is not nice and Marguerite has a 
beautiful red plush cloak — ” 


54 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


“She smiles at me,” defended Angelina. “I 
like her. I would like to know her and play 
with her. I do not think she is at all unman- 
nerly, Maria.” 

But Maria was fitting the key into the home 
lock and she took her time to reply. As she 
hung over the kitchen stove to poke the 
slumbering fire, she gave it more than one dig. 
“The Santos child is unmannerly and I have 
seen it,” she insisted. “She did a most un- 
mannerly thing only the other day as she 
passed by on the road here going homeward 
after school — ” 

Angelina’s eyes flashed. “Tell me,” she 
broke in, “tell me what it was, for I do not 
believe it !” 

“She did! She said shoo, it was just like 
that: she said it to our good gray cat who 
was peacefully sleeping in the sun at the door- 
stone. It was very immannerly to shoo our 
cat!” 

Angelina sniffed. “That was nothing,” 
she defended, “I shoo cats, too. Marguerite 
likes cats even as I do, but I often say shoo, 
shoo! I do it to see the cat blink its eyes and 
look at me. Some cats will jump and run. 


Angelina’s valentine 


55 


One does not know what they will do — and I 
have seen Louisa — ” 

But here Maria put a hand over Angelina’s 
mouth. ‘‘I do not care what Louisa has 
done,” she admonished. “Go get me the soap 
that is by the basin in the bedroom so that I 
may wash the dress. There is no use to start 
a quarrel. There is no money to buy valen- 
tines at all, either for Louisa’s teacher or for 
Marguerite Santos.” 

But if the subject of valentines subsided 
once in a while, it was sure to start again on 
the next day when Maria, Louisa and 
Angelina passed homeward by the wonderful 
windows of the ten cent store. There was 
never time to stop. Only a hasty glimpse did 
Louisa and Angelina snatch. Oh, the joy of 
going into the store to see the piles of candy 
on the candy counter! Oh, the happiness of 
gazing at bright colored ribbons and wonder- 
ful toys! And the valentines that lay on the 
counter in hundreds, what fun to see them, 
even though one could not spend money to 
buy any! Alas! 

But it happened that Angelina had re- 
ceived a good mark in spelling on the day 


56 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


before Valentine’s Day and Maria wished to 
reward it. “I promised,” she said. “It is 
true, Angelina — ^tomorrow, on Valentine’s 
Day, you and Louisa may stop at the store 
and go in while I go home. You may stay 
till the sun sets, but no longer. Today I must 
hurry home and I need you to help with the 
sweeping.” 

The gray cat was on the doorstep in the 
sun as they reached the brown tenement by the 
roadside. Angelina lifted it in her arms and 
Maria turned the key in the lock. They were 
home again. Tomorrow would be the great 
day to visit the store and see all of its splendor. 
That night she dreamed of beautiful valen- 
tines and of Marguerite Santos’ red plush 
cloak. 

The morning of Valentine’s Day dawned 
with pink and gold happiness of sunlight. 
On the way to school, Louisa and Angelina 
sang and when school was out they dashed 
into worn brown cloaks and caps to wait for 
Maria, who took her time gathering books 
and pencils for home-work at night. “Hurry, 
hurry!” they implored. “It is four o’clock. 
The sun will set by half past four and there 


ANGELINA’S VALENTINE 


57 


will be no time to see the valentines 1’’ And 
so Maria hurried. At the ten cent store they 
left her — joy! 

Hand in hand they pressed into the crowd. 
“See, Louisa!” and “Look, Angelina!” they 
called to each other every minute. But it was 
Angelina who caught the first glimpse of the 
valentines. There at the coimter was the 
beautiful red plush cloak of Marguerite 
Santos bending over the valentines! 

Together they pressed past the other chil- 
dren who stood behind that beautiful red 
plush cloak and they craned their necks to 
see the valentines as Marguerite Santos, 
absorbed in the selection of the most beautiful 
one to be had, turned them over one by one. 
But there was no envy in the heart of Louisa 
and Angelina as they watched. It was hap- 
piness that was there — of course, if one had 
been rich like Marguerite Santos — but how 
nice it was to be where they were ! How gay 
the music of the pianola sounded! Wasn’t it 
amusing to watch Marguerite Santos buy 
valentines! But right here she took up the 
one of the gray pussy-cat! 

Angelina nudged Louisa. “See, see!” she 


58 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


whispered. ‘‘She likes the pussy-cat. It is 
not true what Maria said. She is not unman- 
nerly at all. I would like to speak to her and 
ask her to come to play with me — she has 
smiled at me many times when I have met 
her—” 

But Louisa shook her head hard. “You 
must not speak,” she insisted. “Maybe she 
would not like to have you see what it was that 
she bought.” 

So, when Marguerite Santos wedged her 
way out of the crowd, she saw neither 
Angelina nor Louisa. She held her valentine 
of the pussy-cat tight in its big white envelope 
— ^tight upon the front of her red plush cloak. 
She was concerned with the care of it, lest 
some rude person bump into her and injure it. 

Louisa and Angelina waited a moment and 
then drifted out of the door after her. The 
sky was all red and gold with the sunset. It 
was like some wonderfully bright valentine 
card, so beautiful! As they turned the 
corner in the dusky twilight and came upon 
the doorstone of the brown house that was 
home, there knelt the beautiful red plush cloak 


ANGELINA’S VALENTINE 


59 


of Marguerite Santos! She was laying the 
valentine upon the step and was about to 
knock and run away! 

It was Angelina who caught her as she 
turned. Louisa was lagging behind, with her 
eyes on the first evening star that flamed white 
in the sky. 

“Is it really for me?” asked Angelina. 
With an arm around the beautiful red plush 
cloak of Marguerite Santos, she smiled at the 
big white envelope that lay unopened on the 
stone. “I guess that it is a picture of a pussy- 
cat like ours,” she beamed. “I have no valen- 
tine to give you but I have always liked you. 
Marguerite, and I have wanted you to like 
me. Could I not give you a share of our gray 
cat as a valentine, maybe? I know that you, 
too, like cats, though you have none.” 

But here, Louisa caught up and the door 
opened. 

“It was very mannerly of you to bring 
Angelina the valentine,” spoke Maria. “I 
thank you. Will you not come in and play 
for a while? It must be lonely to have no 
brothers and sisters. We would like you for 


60 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


our friend, even though we have no candy or 
peanuts or telephone. Angelina has for a 
long time wanted to know you. Marguerite 
Santos.” 


I 

Buttinski, Peacemaker 




i 


* s « 


I 


'^HE MARCH SURPRISE 

There was a St. Patrick's Day shamrock 
favor in the pocket that was labelled: 

" Open on the 17th of March at 6 A. 

Marjorie was afraid she might oversleep and 
so miss opening that pocket entirely till the 
next March l7th should come around. But 
Dotty saw to that. She was always wide 
awakej bright and early. She woke Marjorie 
up even before 6 A. M. 

The story pocket that came next was 
marked: 

** Open in March when the wind blows hard 

and you have to stay indoors/* 

As March came in like a lamb. Dotty kept 
putting off the reading of this story to tease 
Marjorie. When Marjorie begged to know 
if she might open it. Dot would chuckle. 
''The wind doesn't blow hard enough yet," 
she would say. 

But finally it did blow so hard that 
Marjorie insisted. Then, together, they read 
the story of "Buttinski, Peacemaker." 


V 

Buttinski, Peacemaker 

N obody would have expected it of 
them. They were the very best of 
friends, and Miss Allen, who was the 
grade teacher, used to call them David and 
J onathan. 

When mental arithmetic and English 
classes had head and foot, Laura and Mary 
made it a point not to know answers of ques- 
tions that came to them. So they kept to- 
gether at the foot of the class, side by side. 
Miss Allen never said a word to them or to 
anybody else, but she understood. Then the 
classes stopped having head and foot. But 
she let them sit side by side. Even their desks 
were together. 

Mary was always ready to laugh at a joke. 
Laura couldn’t even see one a mile off. That 
was how the trouble started and how little 
Betty Peters started to play peacemaker. 


64 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


Everybody called Betty Peters ‘‘Buttinski” 
because she was always as interested in other 
people’s affairs as she was in her own — per- 
haps a little too much interested. She would 
interrupt conversations and ask “What ’re 
you talking about ?’^ Some of the girls 
resented it. 

It was in beginning German that Betty 
Peters sat next to Mary. Laura took French 
and wasn’t in the class at all. She did not 
know one word of German from another. It 
used to be one of Mary’s jokes to pretend that 
she could speak fluently so she would rattle 
off a long string of vocabulary with conver- 
sational intonations to make Laura believe 
she knew a great deal. Of course, Laura only 
half beheved, though she didn’t understand 
the joke. Sometimes she really thought that 
it was a German conversation and she didn’t 
like to have Mary talk German to her because 
she did not study it and couldn’t understand. 
Betty Peters always helped Mary. She used 
to enjoy the fun. 

But one day, it ceased to be fun. Laura 
always was a little jealous of Betty Peters. 
She used to wait at the door of the German 


BUTTINSKI, PEACEMAKER 


65 


room with Mary’s lunch-box because she her- 
self had a study-hour just before recess and 
she could be there as soon as Mary’s class was 
dismissed. Then Mary would always call out 
to Betty Peters a long hst of German words 
that meant nothing and Betty Peters would 
reply. On the memorable Friday when this 
stopped being amusing, Laura was there wait- 
ing when the two came out. Mary had been 
full of mischief that day. ‘‘Prolmise not to 
tell — I’m going to have a joke,” she whispered 
as the class filed out into the hall, Betty behind 
her. 

Laura caught the words and saw Betty’s 
nod of promise. Then Mary launched out, 
der, der, die; das, des, dem, das/^ she 
jabbered to Betty. Of course, everybody 
knows that this is feminine and neuter declen- 
sion of the definite article, but Laura thought 
it was something confidential and jumped to 
the conclusion that it was a personal remark 
about her. 

She turned upon her heel and walked 
straight off downstairs. Mary simply hooted 
with laughter and ran after her, but the 
harder she and Betty Peters laughed, the 


66 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


more indignant Laura grew. She put Mary’s 
lunch-box down upon a bench and left it and 
pushed Mary’s hand off her shoulder. Mary 
fell back to get the box. “You’ve done it!” 
declared Betty Peters. 

“Nonsense!” replied Mary. “She ought to 
know I was just joking. Maybe she’s merely 
pretending to be angry.” But she wasn’t at 
all sure. 

“I think she is really angry,” insisted Betty 
Peters. 

“Well, what could she think I said?” in- 
quired Mary. “I didn’t say anything at all.” 

“Perhaps she thought you said something 
about her — ” 

“She ought to knOw me better,” declared 
Mary. Then she carried her lunch-box to the 
lunch-room with Betty Peters. There was a 
crowd there. At first they did not see Laura 
but when they did, there was no chance to 
reach her in the crowd. “She did that on 
purpose,” suggested Betty Peters. Mary 
called to her, but either Lauira didn’t hear or 
pretended not to, even though some of the 
other girls spoke to her and Betty Peters was 
sure Laura must have been aware of the calls. 


BUTTINSKI, PEACEMAKER 


67 


Such a thing as a quarrel between Mary and 
Laura had never before happened. Nobody 
knew what to make of it. Mary was mortified 
and determined to reach Laura so as to ex- 
plain and make it all right, but when Betty 
Peters and Mary reached her, Laura walked 
right in the opposite direction. Mary called 
after her that it was only a joke, but Laura 
was icy. So at last, Mary decided that 
Laura would have to find out for herself what 
der, der^ die and das, des, dem, das^^ 
meant. “Two can play at that game,” she 
snapped, as Laura disappeared. “If she 
won’t speak to me, neither will I speak to 
her!” Betty Peters ate her lunch in the lunch- 
room but Mary took hers out into the garden. 
It was snowy there and she was all alone. It 
couldn’t have been a very nice place to eat 
lunch! Where Laura went, nobody knew. 
She was busy studying all the last part of the 
recreation period. When Mary came in as 
the bell rang, she never moved. Her back 
was twisted around toward Mary’s seat. 
Everybody in the class noticed it, but Miss 
Allen said nothing. Perhaps she thought that 
it would pass off by and by. 


68 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


But the next week they did not speak either ! 
It was worse. Mary had to rub the chalk off 
the blackboard with her handkerchief because 
Laura, who was next her, had the blackboard 
eraser; and Laura kept it on her side and 
Mary wouldn’t ask her for it. Miss Allen 
took Mary’s book to give to a visitor who 
came into history class, but Laura wouldn’t 
pass half of hers over to Mary. When Miss 
Allen saw that she said, “Laura!” in a sharp 
voice. So Laura put the book upon the desk 
between them and it stayed there. Nobody 
turned its pages. 

At lunch hour, Mary avoided Betty Peters. 
Laura disappeared and Sallie Overton found 
her eating her lunch off on the studio stairs — 
away from everything. Mary ate hers alone 
in the cold garden. It must have been that 
Miss Allen realized how silly they were be- 
having, for she tried to set matters right. She 
found out from Betty where Mary was and 
she put on her long blue cloak and went into 
the garden after her. What happened in the 
garden, nobody knew, though some of the 
girls watched out of the windows and saw 
Miss Allen talking and Mary using a hand- 


BUTTINSKI, PEACEMAKER 


69 


kerchief. They came in together. Sallie 
Overton told Miss Allen where Laura was 
and the class thought Miss Allen had talked 
to hdr, too. It was circulated that Miss Allen 
had asked them to meet each other and shake 
hands. But neither of them seemed to have 
done it, for in class things went on as on 
previous days. It seemed worse than a 
Chinese puzzle to solve the difficulty. Some 
of the girls talked to Mary and some talked 
to Laura and begged them to make it up. 
Both declared the other wrong and refused to 
take the first step. “Please,” begged Betty 
Peters, the Buttinski. “Please, Laura.” But 
still nothing happened. Both seemed to feel 
dreadfully. Both were about as blue as Blue 
Monday. Miss Allen took time from study 
hour and talked to the class about friendship 
and what it meant in terms of self-sacrifice, 
generosity and loyalty. Both Mary and 
Laura wept, hut still, after dismission, they 
did not shake hands or speak. And both 
walked home alone every day. 

Miss Allen was correcting papers at her 
desk as Betty Peters walked down the aisle 
to go home. Betty Peters seemed as de- 


70 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


pressed as Miss Allen. Indeed, she almost 
acted as if she had been to blame for the whole 
thing and she tried and tried to get Mary to 
let her tell Laura what der, deVj die and 
das, des, dem, das'' meant. Mary wouldn’t 
let her tell. She said that Laura could find 
out herself. 

“Well, Betty?” smiled Miss Allen, looking 
up from the papers she was correcting. It 
seemed to Betty almost as if Miss Allen were 
thinking of Laura and Mary. It sounded so. 

“It seems a dreadfully hard problem to 
solve, if two halves are separated,” suggested 
Betty Peters, thoughtfully. She stopped be- 
side Miss Allen’s desk and watched the blue 
pencil that was marking a cross upon Laura’s 
written work. 

“Do you mean David and Jonathan?” in- 
quired Miss Allen, with a twinkle in her eye 
as she looked at Betty. 

Betty nodded. 

“How did they go home?” 

“On different sides of the street.” 

“Oh.” 

“It’s really dreadful, isn’t it — and they 
were such friends !” 


BUTTINSKI, PEACEMAKER 


71 


“I asked them to overlook the mistake and 
make it up without explanations — and with 
them, if need be.” 

“But they won’t do it. The girls have tried 
to help and I’m sure I have, too !” 

“Well,” smiled Miss Allen. “What’s at the 
bottom of it, do you know, Betty?” 

Betty nodded. Then Miss Allen pushed 
aside the papers, “Frankly,” she said, “I don’t 
know what to do. They’re both such splendid 
girls but neither one of them will be the first 
to make an apology. They’re very childish, 
aren’t they?” 

“It’s just a misimderstanding,” explained 
Betty. “I can tell you. It was all because 
Mary made a joke and Laura thought it was 
a personal one. Mary said "die, der, der, die 
and das, des, dem, das/ Laura thought she 
said something about her to me. Mary 
wouldn’t let me explain. She said if Laura 
thought that, she’d have to find out what the 
words meant herself.” 

“What sillies!” declared Miss Allen. “I 
suppose they’ll keep this up eternally. I’ve 
tried all manner of ways to stop it; have you 
anything to suggest, Betty?” 


72 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


Betty pondered. “ I was wondering,” she 
mused, “whether if you counted three and told 
them both to speak when you came to that, 
they’d speak?” 

“I never thought of that,” laughed Miss 
Allen. “We’ll try it.” 

Next day, she did. She made both of the 
girls stand and she told each one to say, “I’m 
sorry” when she counted three and came to 
the end. It really was a disgrace to the class 
to have the quarrel go on and on. The girls 
thought it horrid. But when Miss Allen said, 
“Three,” all was silence. The two stood up 
in the class and neither said a word! The 
plan did not work! “Speak!” ordered Miss 
Allen — but there was nothing but silence. 

But Miss Allen was not going to give up, 
“Mary,” said she, “you may decline for me 
the feminine and neuter of the definite article 
in German.” 

Mary looked surprised but she said it, 
“ ^die, der, der, die, das, des, dem, das/ ” 

“Did you ever hear anything like that be- 
fore?” asked Miss Allen of Betty Peters. 

“Yes,” rephed Betty. 

“Did you?” asked Miss Allen of Laura. 


BUTTINSKI, PEACEMAKER 


73 


Laura said she thought so. 

“Was that what Mary said on the memora- 
ble day when she came out of German class?'’ 

“I think so,” replied Laura, a little 
ashamed. 

“Was it, Mary?” 

“Yes,” said Mary, loudly. She was glad to 
say it, too. Some of the girls giggled. 

“Take out your English books for gram- 
mar, oral,” commanded Miss Allen. “Betty 
Peters, you may conjugate the verb ‘to love.’ ” 

So Betty began: “Present tense, indicative 
mood: I love; thou lovest; he loves; we love; 
you love,” and then with her eyes upon Mary 
and Laura she ended, “they love.” 

Everybody in the class laughed for there 
was Laura with her arm around Mary and 
both of them were laughing and crying, too. 

“Buttinski did it,” smiled Miss Allen. “I 
hope nobody else in this class will have a 
quarrel. Now, we’re going to forget that 
there ever was such a thing, aren’t we, Laura 
and Mary?” 

Together they both said, “Yes, I’m sorry!” 



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Angelina s Bird-Flower 


THE APRIL SURPRISE 


Marjorie's surprise for April was, first, a 
flufy Easter chicken card. The Easter story 
pocket was another story about Angelina. 
The pocket said: 

" Open on the afternoon of Easter Day at 
four o*clock/* 

The two little girls let Mother read it aloud 
to them. It was called '^Angelina's Bird- 
Flower." 


FI 

Angelina’s Bird-Flower 

W HERE the little brown bird came 
from, neither Maria nor Louisa nor 
Angelina knew, but he doubtless lived 
near, for he came every day to the window 
of the old brown house where the little Italian 
girls lived, lonely without their mother. It 
was a year since she had died and the days 
were long for Maria, Louisa and Angelina 
after their father left for work at six in the 
morning. 

Maria was always up at five. In the early 
winter, mornings are dark and it takes 
courage to get up in a cold room and light 
the lamp and make the fire and cook break- 
fast. Maria was but twelve. She took her 
mother’s place as best she could. She helped 
her father. She tended Louisa and Angehna 
and if it had not been that the aunts took the 
two babies, she would have cared for them 
gladly too. 


78 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Angelina and Louisa were, for the time, 
Maria’s “babies.” She let them play and she 
did the work herself. She had httle time for 
amusement; it was always either school or 
housekeeping for her. There was breakfast 
and clearing up in the morning; washing 
and cleaning after school; dinner-getting and 
cleaning again at night, beside a hundred and 
one little things that a mother must see to, 
mending, tidying, straightening all things. 
At seven, the father came home tired. Then 
there was bed in the cold rooms and a new day 
of responsibility. Louisa and Angelina wore 
washed and ironed hair-ribbons and well 
done-up gingham dresses, mended as best 
Maria could. They took off their shoes and 
stockings when at home, to save the wear, and 
did in general as Maria told them except for 
the little brown bird. They would save their 
crusts for him in spite of Maria’s scoldings. 

He came first on one of the lonely mornings 
before school time, when Maria was busy with 
housework and Louisa and Angelina were 
thawing the frosted window pane with their 
warm breath to look out at the chilly snow- 
bound road that led past the old brown house. 


Angelina’s bird-flower 


79 


Louisa had thrown out a crust because she 
had not wanted to eat it and there — ^why, there 
was a little brown bird tugging at it in the 
snow! 

‘‘What’re you two laughing at so?” de- 
manded Maria, looking up from dishwashing. 
“Take a-hold somebody and help here! I 
can’t take time to stand by the window an’ 
laugh at nothing when there’s work to be 
done!” But, dish-rag in hand, curiosity got 
the better of scolding and she peeped ovdr 
Louisa’s shoulder and saw the little brown 
bird and his breakfast. 

At first she smiled, too, then she frowned. 
“Louisa,” said she, “you are bad. It is you 
who threw out the crust of bread!” 

There was no denial. 

“And when bread costs money — and we 
cannot get enough to buy Angelina new 
shoes !” 

“I would rather the bird had the crust,” 
defended Angelina. “The holes are not yet 
very big.” 

But even as mother would have done, 
Maria watched the family purse, and Louisa 
ate crusts under her elder sister’s vigilant eye 


80 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


each meal time. But there were always very 
big crumbs at Angelina’s plate and medium 
sized ones at Louisa’s. When it came time 
to clear the table, Louisa and Angelina, with 
a glance at each other, picked these up quickly 
and threw them out on the snow. It was ex- 
citing. Nobody knew when Maria would call 
either little sister to account: “Louisa, give 
me those crumbs. I will save them and make 
a pudding.” Always there seemed to be 
breakfast for the little brown bird in spite of 
this. He came regularly. Sometimes Louisa 
and Angelina had to pick the crumbs from 
the coal-hod where Maria’s over hasty house- 
keeping threw little ones; but always, always, 
always, they kept watch for the little brown 
bird. And the mornings before school time 
were less lonely because of his cheer. Indeed, 
as the days went by, he became very tame — 
tame enough to hop close to the pane as 
Louisa and Angelina breathlessly watched. 

The mornings gradually grew lighter and 
the days passed on to the latter part of 
February. Louisa and Angelina talked much 
of their pet. Where did the little brown bird 
live? Could they make him so tame he would 


Angelina’s bird-flower 


81 


ccMne upon their hands? Would he learn to eat 
from their fingers? Perhaps there might be 
a nest with little bits of brown birds some- 
where near the house next spring! Then, 
Angelina and Louisa might tame these per- 
haps! Maria, busy with housework, had no 
time to answer such questions. She merely 
sniffed. 

“You two are forever talking about that 
little brown bird,” she said, ‘T have to think 
of other things: I think whether there is wood 
for the fire and whether there is enough food 
in the house. You, too, Louisa and Angelina, 
you have mouths to feed!” 

It was true. There was not always enough. 
Louisa and Angelina knew it. They could 
well understand the little brown bird’s joy 
at finding plenty to eat. It was good to have 
a hearty meal. Then one day, before it was 
time to go to school, Louisa and Angelina 
missed the little brown bird! “Did you see 
him this morning?” they asked each other. 
“Maybe he has gone away and is making a 
nest.” 

But the next day came and no little brown 
bird appeared. Another morning passed and 


82 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


still no little brown bird! On their way home 
from school that day Louisa whispered to 
Angelina that she was going to hunt for him. 
And when Maria was busy, they crept out of 
the door and, barefoot in the cold mud, they 
searched for nests by the roadside bushes. 

They found none. 

The search led them hither and thither on 
and on up the hill near the brown house and 
toward a cluster of cottages where the Irish 
immigrants had formed a colony. Maria, 
shaking her finger violently, as she did when 
she wished to enforce a command, insisted 
always that neither Ajigelina nor Louisa 
should make friends or play with the Irish 
children there. “They throw stones — they are 
badly brought up,” she declared. 

Up to this time, good little Ajigelina and 
Louisa had never come so close to these other 
tenements. But they wandered closer in 
their search for the little brown bird. It was 
Angelina who first spoke to the little boys 
that they met flinging stones there. “Have 
you seen a little brown bird?” she asked. “It 
might be our little bird that we have lost. 
Have you seen one anywhere, perhaps?” 


Angelina’s bird-flower 


83 


But the little boys simply made up faces 
and stuck out their tongues. No, they had 
not seen any brown birds to tell of — nor did 
they care. They would have thrown stones, 
had not a little smile from Angelina prevented 
it. Angelina felt sorry for the bad httle boys 
who were rude. 

Louisa drew her away. ‘‘Come, Ange, we 
will look in another place,” she urged. “If 
he has been hurt we will find him, maybe. I 
do not think they have hurt him,” she com- 
forted. But in her heart she feared it. 

So they pattered back toward home through 
the black chilly mud, searching the roadside. 
Quite suddenly Louisa came upon him lying 
limp and cold under a tree by the way. 
He would never twitter or chirp again. He 
would never come to the window or eat from 
their fingers or build a nest in spring. The 
two little sisters sat there by the roadside and 
cried and then they carried the httle brown 
bird home and cried some more. Maria 
stopped her work and tried to be comforting. 
There was httle to say. She did not scold 
very hard about the trip abroad in bare feet. 


84 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


They put him in the beautiful box that was 
Maria’s treasure — a box with a picture on its 
cover, a beautiful picture all red roses. They 
took him to a sunny spot near the roadside 
and gathered last autumn’s leaves to cover 
him. One could see the place from the 
window. 

The mornings that came after the little 
brown bird went away, Ange and Louisa 
tried to enthuse over paper dolls that father 
had brought them, cut from a Sunday news- 
paper — ^but somehow they always drifted 
toward the window, even though they knew 
he would never come again. 

And so time passed, long mornings, school 
and home-coming. It began to be spring. 
Grass came by the roadside bushes that 
showed wee buds to break into soft colors. 
Maria left the kitchen door open of a morn- 
ing and Angelina sat on the stone before the 
doorway, thinking. Her eyes rested for a 
moment upon the place where they had placed 
the httle brown bird under the leaves. She 
called to Louisa, “Oh, come — come! Let us 
see what the bird-flower is! We put him 
imder the leaves in the earth, and there is 


Angelina’s bird-flower 


85 


grown from him a flower! It is a bird-flower 
— a bird-flower, Louisa!” 

They ran out to look at the little flower that 
grew over the spot where the little brown bird 
had been. ‘Ts it so, Ange?” asked Louisa, 
willing to believe. 

Full of excitement, they ran back to busy 
Maria. “Our little brown bird is grown to be 
a bird-flower,” they cried. “Come, Maria, 
come quickly and see! It is such a pretty 
flower, all bke a star and white!” 

Maria shook her head. “There are no bird- 
flowers,” she declared. But she followed them 
out to the sunny spot where the grass was 
growing green over the dead leaves and she 
thought it a beautiful flower. She let Louisa 
and Angelina talk of their bird-flower, but 
she smiled to herself. 

But why should not little birds who have 
been stoned waken, with the flowers, in the 
spring sunlight? Louisa and Angelina be- 
lieved in their bird-flower and they wondered, 
too, if all spring flowers came from little 
birds. At night when their father came home, 
they asked him. At first he laughed and did 
not understand. Maria explained. 


86 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


“They are children/’ she smiled, “and 
they think a bird is like a bulb or seed. 
They cannot understand the difference. They 
watched the little brown bird all winter, and 
Louisa gave it crusts that she ought to have 
eaten. And they found it by the roadside 
where the rude children up the hill had killed 
it. We put the little bird under the leaves 
there and now that a flower has come in the 
place, they call it their bird-flower, father!” 

Then he put a hand on each little head. 
“My little girls,” he said, “is it true — then call 
it your bird-flower if it comforts you. I will 
tell you what I think: they say that there are 
no little birds in heaven, for their souls do not 
live, they say. Yet I know there are children 
up there and that wherever the children are 
there must be birds to sing to them — even the 
angel children would want them. And I 
know that your mother would miss them, too, 
were they not there.” 

In the stillness they heard a song sparrow 
trill from the bushes on the hillside. 

“I would like to have our little brown bird 
sing to our mother,” Angelina suggested 
softly. 


Angelina’s bird-flower 


87 


“He might sing of us,” whispered Louisa. 

But Maria was still. 

“There are many birds left, my children. 
You too should sing and not be sad, for that 
is what is best. We will make happiness and 
brightness, you, my Angelina, and you, my 
Louisa. We will make a garden there in the 
place where you have found your star flower! 
I will get seeds. We will take Maria from 
her kitchen to help and there will be plenty 
to do in the early mornings before school 
then. Such weeds as you will have to watch 
for, to care for the beautiful flowers that I 
will plant! Ah, then your mornings will be 
so glad among the flowers!” 

The three little girls smiled. 

And the garden that grew up around 
Ange’s bird-flower all three of them called 
the garden of the little brown bird. 


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Marjorie’s Mystery 


THE MAY SURPRISE 


Marjorie's May surprise was a paper May 
basket, of course. You know all about that. 
And the story pocket that came in May, 
Dotty had labelled: 

" Open on May Day, too.** 

Marjorie opened it right after the first 
pocket, but she had to keep the story till after- 
noon to read. She read it to Dotty after they 
came home. '"I chose it because the little girl 
in the story was named after you," smiled 
Dot. And so they had the funny story of 
''Marjorie's Mystery." 


VII 

Marjorie’s Mystery 

U PON Marjorie’s list of good resolu- 
tions, not-to-be-too-curious was a fail- 
ing hard to remember and conquer. In 
the first place, Marjorie was very wide awake. 
She always saw everything that was happen- 
ing. In the second place and in the third 
place as well as the tenth and thirteenth place, 
Marjorie couldn’t bear not to know every- 
thing that she wanted to know. Sometimes, 
she went quite too far in her attempts to find 
out. At any rate. Daddy and Mother and 
Mark and Dotty made fun of the failing 
and Marjorie, when she stopped to think 
twice — ^which wasn’t so very often — tried hard 
to overcome unnecessary curiosity. Some- 
times it is a fine thing to he curious and again, 
it’s bad. But upon a very memorable day in 
May, once upon a time, something mysterious 
came to pass at Marjorie’s home and this is 


92 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


to be the story of The Great Mystery of 
Curiosity, Unanswered. 

It happened this way: Daddy was away; 
Mark had gone off since Friday to make a 
visit at a boy friend’s just out of town a little 
way; Dotty had also gone away. She spent 
the night with the little girl next door and 
had not yet come home. It was a Monday 
morning and May Day. 

Marjorie had prepared a May Day basket 
for her special friend, Mabel. She had been 
out in the woods on Sunday afternoon and 
as soon as she was through breakfast, the 
bowl of May Day flowers came out — and in 
arranging them they scattered all over the 
floor as Marjorie selected the unwilted ones 
to put into Mabel’s basket. 

“Look out,” warned Mother. “Somebody 
came last night when you were abed. Some- 
body may be down to breakfast by and by — 
better pick up, Marjorie! We don’t want a 
disorderly floor.” 

“Oh, did Daddy come home?” questioned 
Marjorie. 

“No, not Daddy.” 

“Who?” 


MARJORIE’S MYSTERY 


93 


“Oh, just somebody who wants to keep 
quiet this morning and rest.” 

Wasn’t that enough to make a person 
curious! Of course it was! Who? Who 
could it be? “Is it uncle or aunt?” she in- 
sisted. “Who’s ‘company’?” 

But Mother only smiled. “You’ll find out 
sometime,” she said. “Not now. If I told 
you, you’d run right up to Mark’s room and 
the person who came last night felt sick and 
mustn’t be disturbed.” 

Hump! The flowers were pushed into the 
paper May basket and she began to pick up 
the leaves and buds that had fallen on the 
floor. “I think you might tell me,” she 
begged. “I want to know who came.” 

But Marjorie got no answer. She knew 
it wasn’t much use to continue to tease, but 
she resolved to find out who it was. 

At school the question still pursued 
Marjorie. Would Mark come home and 
want his room and, if he did, would he know 
who Was there? After school she dashed 
home and burst through the back door and up 
the back stairs. Mark’s door was closed. 
There was a paper pinned upon it. It was 


94 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Mother’s writing and it said, “Please don’t 
disturb.” 

So Marjorie passed by the door. She went 
into Mother’s room and found Mother sewing. 
“Isn’t company ever going to wake up?” she 
asked. “Am I never to know who is there?” 

But she received no answer only a smile. 

Dotty was home now. Dotty didn’t know 
who was in Mark’s room, but she wasn’t 
curious about things. She was occupied in 
cutting out paper dolls, sitting on the floor in 
the sun beside the window. 

“What happened at luncheon?” asked 
Marjorie of Dotty who went to kindergarten 
and came home at noon. “Did anybody talk 
in Mark’s room when Mother took up the 
tray? Did you hear anything?” 

Dotty shook her head. 

Deary me! Oh, dear! And the door was 
closed! Marjorie decided to walk by it again. 
She waited and she listened. She heard 
nothing at all — ^no, not a sound, not a sound! 
Then the telephone bell rang and she ran 
down to answer it. The telephone call was 
from Mabel. Mabel had been at school and 


MARJORIE’S MYSTERY 


95 


she wanted to know if Marjorie had solved 
the mystery. 

“Who came? Who is it?” she asked. 

But Marjorie did not know. Mabel sug- 
gested that it must be Marjorie’s aunt who 
came from the West. “Probably that’s it,” 
she said. “Why don’t you make a May 
basket and go tie it on the door and — and say 
something. You could tell from the voice, if 
it answered you, whether it was your aunt or 
not.” That was a good thought. Marjorie 
set about making a paper May basket. She 
heard Mother go up the front stairs and cross 
to the back where Mark’s door was. Then, 
having made the basket, she decided to 
try Mabel’s suggestion. Mother went into 
Mark’s room, came out and went downstairs 
again. Marjorie waited. 

Then she went upstairs softly. Mother was 
in the living-room with Dotty now, playing 
and helping her cut the dolls out of a big 
magazine sheet. They seemed occupied. 

May basket in hand, Marjorie tiptoed 
toward Mark’s door and saw that the paper 
had been taken off it. She hung the May 


96 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


basket on the knob and knocked. There was 
no answer. “May I come and bring you a 
May Day gift?” she softly suggested to the 
closed door. 

But right here, who should appear hut 
Mother! “I’ll take the basket in for you, 
dear,” she smiled. Marjorie was quite aware 
of the wicked twinkle in her eye. “Dotty 
wants you to help her downstairs,” she said. 

So downstairs went Marjorie. She stopped 
half way as Mother opened the mysterious 
door and passed in with the May basket. 
She saw nothing. She heard nothing. Now, 
wasn’t that just dreadful! Marjorie’s curi- 
osity was much bigger than ever but she went 
down to help darling little sister. Dotty, cut 
paper dolls out of the fashion sheet. 

But while she cut for Dotty, she kept 
wondering and wondering and wondering. 
She decided that she’d write a note upon some 
paper and slip it under the door and say on 
the paper: 

Who are you, mysterious stranger ? Please 
answer? Are you Auntie? If you are Auntie, 
let ime know, please. 'I want to see you. If 
you are Mother’s friend. Miss Phelps, please 


Marjorie’s mystery 


97 


tell me? Mother says you want to be quiet, so 
I can’t come in, but I want to know who you are 
— please, please put an answer under your door 
for me. Marjorie. 

That was what she did do as soon as the last 
doll had been cut out. At the time, Mother 
was busy in the kitchen, getting tea. Dotty 
was still playing with the dolls. Marjorie 
slipped upstairs and tucked the paper beneath 
the crack. As she came to the end of the 
paper, she gave it a wiggle to attract atten- 
tion. She hadn’t dared to speak again as 
Mother said the mysterious person must not 
be troubled. 

As the paper disappeared under the door 
Mother appeared! She came bringing a 
napkin and tray with something hot upon it. 
She was going to take this into Mark’s room. 

“Marjorie,” she reproved. “Are you still 
so curious? Well, run away now.” 

Marjorie waited in the hall and heard 
Mother speaking — but nothing else ! She 
was almost ashamed to pursue the mystery so 
openly but when Mother at last came out 
bringing the tray and the empty dishes, she 
laughingly handed Marjorie an answer to the 


98 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


letter. It said in strange scrawls that be- 
trayed nothing of who had written them: 

Please, I feel sick. You’ll see me sometime 
when I am better. I just want to sleep now. 

The Mysterious Mystery. 

Marjorie laughed and then she frowned. 
Now, why couldn’t that person-whoever-it- 
was have signed a name ! Why not ! 

“How long before the person in Mark’s 
room will be well?” she asked. 

“Oh, soon,” replied Mother. “I hope very 
soon.” 

“What time? Will I know who it is by tea- 
time?” 

“Maybe.” 

“Oh, deary me!” Marjorie sighed. “Well, 
I’ve tried every way I can to find out,” she 
said. “Perhaps I’d better forget about it. 
I’m going to do my home-work for school so 
I can forget about it.” And she sat down at 
the library table with pencil, paper and books. 
But still, nothing happened! 

Then it grew twilight and the light was lit 
in the dining-room. Marjorie rose and set 
the supper-table as usual. “How many places 
shall I set. Mother?” she inquired. “I don’t 


Marjorie’s mystery 


really mean to be curious any more — but you 
see, I must know. Mark will be home tonight 
and there will be Daddy — he’ll be here — and 
there’s you and there’s me and, I suppose The 
Mystery will be down, will it?” 

‘‘The Mystery will be down,” answered 
Mother, “but we’ll only need four places.” 

But right here into the room came Mark. 
“Hello,” he greeted Marjorie. ‘‘Say, that’s 
one on you for curiosity. Mar j ! But the 
May basket was a peach! I’d have called to 
you only Mother said I mustn’t else you’d be 
in and talk to me and I felt pretty sick, I tell 
you! I got sick at Jimmie’s house and they 
telephoned home here the night I went away 
after you were asleep. Mother thought I’d 
better come right home, if I was going to be 
sick, so they sent me home late at night in 
their car — it’s a joke on you, Marjorie. How 
about a Mysterious Stranger?” 

Mother laughed. And so, too, did 
Marjorie. 




The Two Little Bates 

Girls 


THE JUNE SURPRISE 


The four-leaf clover that came in June’s 
first pocket was a pressed four-leaf clover 
marked:, ^"To help in examination time,” The 
story that came in the other June pocket was 
''The Two Little Bates Girls” and it was 
labelled: 

** Read and open after your arithmetic exam- 
ination, is over/* 


Fill 

The Two Little Bates 
Girls 

T hey were not at all alike and they 
were not even sisters — those two little 
Bates girls. One had curly light hair 
and the other had bobbed-off black hair. One 
was slender and the other was plump. One 
had blue eyes and the other had brown ones 
and both were as different as different could 
be, though the names of both came upon 
Miss Kennedy’s school roll one after the 
other; first Mamie and then Mary. 

Mary had light curls that bobbed in a lively 
way even in arithmetic class, where every- 
thing was rather subdued by hard problems 
that Miss Kennedy set. Mamie Bates had 
bobbed black hair that had a way of falling 
over her forehead when she was bending over 
work — in brief, Mary Bates was lively and 
Mamie Bates was not. Mamie Bates acknowl- 
edged that arithmetic was about the hardest 


104 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


thing in school but Mary Bates said it was 
easy, even though Miss Kennedy’s blue pencil 
went over her paper and made big blue crosses 
that meant “Wrong” as often as they crossed 
the papers of Mamie in the same way. 

It ought not to have been so. Nevertheless 
the first quarterly report that Miss Kennedy 
made out for Mamie and Mary Bates ranked 
them side by side — seventy-six percent! 
That’s not a high mark; Miss Kennedy shook 
her head over both marks. It was surely 
nothing to be proud of! 

Mary Bates refused to show her report. 

Mamie Bates hung her head woefully and 
explained that she had tried the best she knew 
how — which was right. Both of them decided 
to try even harder next quarter. And they 
did try. Mamie Bates mounted up to eighty 
percent, and in one examination, she achieved 
eighty-three! “Next time,” urged Miss Ken- 
nedy, “see if you can’t make it eighty-five!” 
Mary Bates did not tell her mark. It may 
have been that she was ashamed of it or it 
may have been that she did not want to brag. 
Nobody knew which. 

But when Mamie Bates went home, she 


THE TWO LITTLE BATES GIRLS 


105 


told her daddy all about that eighty-three 
percent and her daddy smiled and said, 
“Well, if you’ll make the next one ninety in- 
stead of eighty-five, and if you’ll keep all the 
other marks above eighty-three after that, by 
the end of the next quarter you shall have — 
What do you want most?” 

“A pony and a cart,” laughed Mamie. 

“A pony and a cart,” repeated daddy. “A 
real five pony and a basket cart!” 

Hooray! Think of it! Think of it — a 
pony and a pony cart! That was the way 
things stobd with Mamie Bates during the last 
quarter of the year in Miss Kennedy’s room. 
The black bobbed hair fell over her eyes more 
industriously than ever as she bent over her 
problems in arithmetic. In the margins of 
Mamie Bates’s examination and test papers 
each Friday there began to appear such 
delectable written words as, “Well done, 
Mamie.” But the big blue crosses didn’t quite 
disappear — oh, no! 

Mary Bates continued to keep her marks 
to herself. Very rarely did she show any. 
Those that she did show weren’t so bad as 
some of the other girls’ papers. But there 


106 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


never seemed to be “^Well done, Mary,” on 
any one of them. Even though there was 
nothing of this kind, Mary Bates seemed 
contented with them. She said she had re- 
ceived ninety-five in deportment and that was 
about the best mark that anybody could ever 
receive. Miss Kennedy would never give a 
higher deportment mark. Even Sallie Rob- 
erts who was noted throughout the whole 
class room for being “awfully good” never 
received a higher mark than ninety-five — but 
then, only the very bad scholars received less. 
Mary Bates also said that she had a splendid 
report in spelling. She didn’t say what, but 
everybody knew that she could spell. So 
could Mamie. 

And so the time went by each week nearer 
and nearer to Mamie Bates’s excited anticipa- 
tion of that pony! The marks, so far, had 
been all right. Daddy would have to keep 
the promise! Toward the end of the quarter 
every girl in the class was wondering if she 
were going to pass herself. It all depended 
upon the final tests. Even Mary Bates ad- 
Imitted that she was a httle shaky but not 
much. She thought she knew it all. 


THE TWO LITTLE BATES GIRLS 


107 


Mercy! How Miss Kennedy’s class did 
drill ! Over the old, old stumbling blocks they 
went with long pieces of yellow scratch paper. 
It did seem as if everybody must pass the 
arithmetic test! Then the week of examina- 
tions came and with it the worst dreaded of 
all, arithmetic eocamination! 

Over this, Mary Bates shook her curls 
soberly. Mamie Bates struggled with black 
hair falling over her forehead. And then the 
time was up and papers had to be handed in. 
Mamie Bates gave in her paper reluctantly. 
Her cheeks were flushed. As soon as it had 
gone, she asked if she might look at it again, 
just for a minute. Miss Kennedy smiled. 
She didn’t let her. “Time’s up, Mamie,” she 
admonished. “What’s done must stay — it 
isn’t fair to the rest, you know.” 

“Yes, I know,” returned Mamie, “but you 
see the pony and pony cart depend upon it. 
The others aren’t working for so much.” 
But Miss Kennedy passed on. Everybody in 
the class knew of daddy’s promise and hoped 
Mamie would win that percent in her arith- 
metic — everybody. 

Mary Bates brought her paper to Miss 


108 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


Kennedy’s desk without even waiting for it 
to be collected. “I’m sure I got everything 
right,” she chirped. “It was easy! I think 
I’ll get ninety-five! There’s only one thing 
that might be wrong.” 

Sallie Overton nudged her neighbor. “I 
don’t believe it,” she whispered. “She always 
thinks that she knows everything. I think it 
was hard, don’t you?” 

Oh, dear! Everybody seemed depressed as 
they left for home that afternoon — everybody 
but Mary Bates who was quite sure of herself 
always. Everybody compared notes with 
everybody else on the way home but nobody 
seemed sure. One had to wait till the reports 
came in. It was dreadful to wait — at least 
dreadful for little Mamie Bates who was 
thinking about daddy’s promise and the pony. 
One always made more mistakes than one 
knew of, somehow, yet she had tried ever so 
hard. She hoped she was right. She had 
tried not to get excited. She had tried to stop 
and think over rules and she thought she 
ought to have done something she hadn’t done, 
of course. It was fearfully hard to wait till 
Monday. On Monday the report cards were 


THE TWO LITTLE BATES GIRLS 


109 


to be given out. Almost everybody was ex- 
pecting some kind of a surprise that day, but 
the surprise that Miss Kennedy’s class antici- 
pated was one of percents, not of teachers. 
When the class assembled, there in Miss 
Kennedy’s chair and right at her desk mak- 
ing out the report cards sat — a substitute 
teacher! She would tell nobody what the 
marks were and she just snapped. Really, 
Miss Kennedy would have told Mamie Bates, 
at least. She knew about the pony. But the 
substitute teacher only said that there was no 
hurry, they’d know fast enough. She didn’t 
like to be asked questions at all. She said 
Miss Kennedy might not come back at all — 
no, of course not! Why should she? (At 
this everybody looked more worried than ever. 
All the class loved Miss Kennedy. Sallie 
Overton had openly said that she didn’t want 
to pass because if she did, next year she’d 
have to leave Miss Kennedy’s room.) But at 
the end of the study period, before being 
finally dismissed, the report cards were given 
out, at last! 

Mamie Bates grasped hers. She hardly 
dared to look, but when she did, tears sprang 


110 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


to her eyes and she had to shake the brown 
bobbed hair over them. There it was seventy^ 
sioo percent! The schoolroom blurred — only 
seventy-six percent! And how hard she had 
tried to please daddy — and how she did want 
that pony! Yet all hope was gone now be- 
cause the final mark had fallen below! 
Mechanically she stood to be dismissed. Me- 
chanically she went to the cloak room, and 
mechanically she walked toward home. 

Seventy-six — not even eighty-three! And 
the pony — the pony! 

Daddy didn’t ask about reports. Mamie 
Bates decided to wait and give the bad news 
out when she herself was a little more used 
to it. Perhaps next day, she could do it. Of 
course, seventy-six would promote one into 
the next grade, but it wouldn’t give the pony! 
If Miss Kennedy had been there, she would 
have explained to Mamie Bates all about her 
mistakes, but the substitute kept the papers. 
She didn’t seem to think much of anybody’s 
mark — but substitutes never do seem to care. 
Mamie hoped Miss Kennedy would come back 
next day. She’d explain everything. 

And the next day, sure enough, there 


THE TWO LITTLE BATES GIRLS 


111 


was Miss Kennedy at her desk, smiling. 
As Mamie came in and passed her, she smiled. 
“Mamie,” she smiled, “I’m glad about your 
arithmetic. Are you?” 

Ma:mie hung her head. “It wasn’t good. 
Miss Kennedy,” she stated, trying hard not 
to cry. “I thought I was doing it right but I 
must have been careless. I really knew about 
everjrthing !” 

“Let’s see your paper,” asked Miss Ken- 
nedy — but the substitute had the paper. 
Miss Kennedy didn’t know of any very bad 
trouble. “Let’s see your card, then,” she 
asked. 

Mamie took it out of her book where it was 
hidden, unsigned as yet by daddy. “It’s too 
bad,” she sighed. “There can’t be any pony 
at all now!” 

“No pony? Why not?” And then Miss 
Kennedy saw the seventy-six percent upon 
the report card ! “Why, why, Mamie Bates !” 
exclaimed Miss Kennedy. “Your mark is 
ninety-six, not seventy-six! I’ve just seen it 
in the teacher’s book. That must be a mis- 
take! Wait a minute and I’ll see.” Off she 
dashed to get the examination papers in the 


112 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


next room. Mamie Bates’s heart went pit- 
pat. She was sure Miss Kennedy was right — 
oh, the pony! 

Yes, of course, it was a mistake — a mistake 
made by the substitute. She had mixed the 
marks of the two little Bates girls, who were 
no more alike than their arithmetic marks! 

Mary Bates said she didn’t care so long as 
she passed, so perhaps the change of her mark 
didn’t matter so much. It was really Mamie 
Bates who had worked hardest, anyhow. 

But the really lovely thing that happened, 
happened at the close of school that day. 
When Mamie Bates came out of school, there 
was a pony and a pony cart waiting by the 
curb and daddy was in the cart! He — how 
did he know about the arithmetic reports 
being all right? But it didn’t take Mamie 
Bates long to claim the pony! She wanted to 
know if he had a name and when daddy said 
he didn’t think so, he was called Arithmetic 
right then and there. Miss Kennedy came 
out to see him and had the first ride behind 
him. 


Arne’s Fourth of July 

Battle, 


THE JULY SURPRISE 


The July pocket that came first was opened 
on July third at noon. It held a wee Ameri- 
can flag. The story pocket came later and it 
held a Fourth of July story. They read it 
ntting in the hammock on the porch. It was 
called, "^Arne^s Fourth of July Battle/" 


IX 

Arne’s Fourth of July 
Battle 

A rne drove the white horse, Christo- 
pher, into Danville every morning to 
take the milk to the creamery. He 
started from the farm as soon as the milk 
was in the cans, just as L5mian or Leslie — 
whichever it might happen to be — took the 
cdws to the wood pasture. It was a long 
drive over the Prairie Road into Danville 
Creamery. Most usually it was uneventful. 
And every day, now that the last of June had 
come, grew warmer and warmer. Some days 
it was decidedly hot on the Prairie Road, 
even though Arne and Christopher started so 
early of a morning. 

There were almost always errands to do in 
Danville, after having been to the creamery. 
Afterwards, Arne and Christopher had to 
hurry back to the farm because there was 


116 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


work to do there, too. The men needed 
Christopher in the fields, and Ame, too. 
There never was any time to idle along 
the road. It seemed to Arne that work 
never ended. He wanted some fun — that’s 
what he wanted. The other boys didn’t 
have to work all the time in summer 
— but then, it wasn’t all of them that 
owned thrift cards. Arne did. He already 
had earned ten stamps. When he thought of 
that, then he was rather glad he had the work 
to do for his father. His father gave him a 
thrift stamp every week that work was well 
and satisfactorily done — and without shirk- 
ing. So far, Ame had only missed getting his 
stamp once. That was when he slipped off 
one day to go to the swimming-hole with 
Jimmy Smith when he was supposed to be 
working in the hay-field, raking. That was 
last week. 

As Arne reflected upon these things and 
Christopher jogged into Danville that day 
that was the very last day of June, he slapped 
the reins and decided that he would lose no 
more thrift stamps. He wore his knot of red, 
white and blue ribbon pinned on his blue shirt 


ARNE’S FOURTH OF JULY RATTLE 


117 


and he was “doing his bit” quite as much as 
anybody, even though the other boys did have 
more chance to have fun. Then he looked up 
and saw — the circus poster! 

Right then and there, he stopped Christo- 
pher and sat gazing at it. The circus was 
coming to Danville on the Fourth of July — 
twenty-five cents admission. The picture 
showed all manner of lovely ladies dancing on 
the backs of black horses. It showed ele- 
phants that played hoop; it pictured funny 
clowns and monkeys riding dog's — in short, 
everything that a circus ought to be seemed 
suggested by the big circus poster. “I’m 
a-goin’,” Arne resolved aloud. “Sure, I’m 
agoin’ to it, somehow!” Then he clucked to 
Christopher and the wagon rattled onward 
toward the creamery. Just that one afternoon 
was the circus coming. It was a splendid kind 
of Fourth of July treat. “I guess my father’ll 
let me go,” he mused. “I guess so.” 

When he reached Danville, all the lads 
who were waiting for cans to be emptied 
had gathered in a knot near the creamery 
door. Everybody was talking about the cir- 
cus. Everybody was going. 


118 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Harold Sniffin’s cans were ready first. He 
and Arne came the same road so he waited to 
go home with him. They tied Christopher 
to the back of Harold’s cart and the two sat to- 
gether and talked as they rode home over the 
Prairie Road. Harold’s father let him buy 
his own thrift stamps. Harold was going 
without his weekly stamp and was going to 
buy his circus ticket with the twenty-five 
cents. As Arne had no money, Harold sug- 
gested this method of getting a ticket. 
Fourth of July did not always bring a circus. 
This year there had been no spring circus at 
all. Circuses couldn’t travel well on account 
of the railroads needing the cars now. This 
circus, it seemed, had gone from town to town 
upon its own feet and in its own circus 
wagons. 

They had decided to go together and start 
early when the road of Harold’s turning 
came. Then they unhitched Christopher and 
Arne whipped up and came clattering into 
the red barn at home. “There’s a circus 
coming to Danville on the Fourth,” he 
laughed. “Guess that’s a fine way to cele- 
brate a Safe an" Sane day!” 


ARNE’S FOURTH OF JULY RATTLE 


119 


Only four more days to wait! Hooray! 
All that afternoon, Arne sang happily as he 
ran around the farm doing chores. He re- 
flected, as he hoed his patch late in the after- 
noon, that farm work was really patriotic 
y^ork and that he, right there hoeing, was 
doing his bit as much as if he were buying a 
thrift stamp. Of course he was! 

That night when he was coming from the 
barn, after having fed the calves their bran 
mixture, he met his father. He explained 
about the circus. He wanted the money in- 
stead of the stamp, he said. 

“All right,” said father. There the matter 
dropped. He did not ask about the circus at 
all. 

But Arne talked a great deal about it to his 
mother. He talked about it to Lyman and 
Leslie, who were helpers at the farm. When 
it was dark and chores were done, he sat on 
the flat stone at the doorstep and watched the 
stars come out while he thought about it some 
more — only four more days! 

The morning of the first of July, Christo- 
pher trotted into Danville at a pretty rapid 
pace. Indeed, he was rather white around the 


120 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


collar when they at last reached the circus 
poster on the road to Danville. But he earned 
his rest, for there Arne stopped and gazed at 
all the wonderful things. The circus poster 
promised many, many more than were pic- 
tured there. It said a thousand thrills would 
be felt by everyone who witnessed the daring 
tight-rope walking. It spoke of the Wild 
West and Indians that were a feature of the 
performance. It was only a big poster but 
one felt after looking at it, that one could 
hardly wait three days more before the Fourth 
should come! And going home from Dan- 
ville, Arne again sat beside Harold while 
Christopher jogged behind. Again they 
talked. Again they planned. Again they 
undid Christopher from the rear of Harold’s 
cart. Again at the crossroads, they parted 
till the morrow. And again on the morrow, 
the very same thing occurred. 

Only one day more before the Fourth! In 
the country few have firecrackers. Arne was 
thinking chiefly about that circus. He and 
Harold planned to go in time to see the parade 
in the morning. Only one day more — 

Then the next day it rained. It rained un- 


ARNE’S FOURTH OF JULY BATTLE 


121 


expectedly in the afternoon when the hay was 
all ready to pitch. They had to hurry out, 
even in the rain, and stack it. Arne went with 
the others. He was wet through when he 
came in but his spirits were imdampened by 
the shower. Only one night more — and then. 
Fourth of July and circus! Hooray! Hoo- 
ray! Hooray! Tomorrow! Tomorrow! 

After he had fixed the bran mixture for the 
calves that night, Ame hung aroimd the barn 
where Lyman and Leslie were milking. He 
liked to hear them talk and joke together. 
Tonight, he himself felt that there was only 
one big subject of conversation and he 
broached this as he came through with the 
empty pails that had held the calves’ supper. 
‘T’m goin’ to the Danville circus tomorrow,” 
he chirped. “Be you goin’ too?” 

“You’re lucky, kid,” rephed Leslie. 
“How’d you get the money?” 

“My week’s wages,” answered Arne. “The 
thrift stamp money.” When he said it, some- 
how, it sounded queer. It sounded — ^yes, it 
sounded unpatriotic. But Arne felt it only a 
second. He lifted himself with a jump to the 
side of the hay-cart that stood nearby and 


122 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


dangled his bare feet from denim overalls, 
“I’m goin’ with Harold,” he amplified. 
“We’re goin’ to hitch by the creaimery an’ see 
the parade.” He swung his legs and whistled. 
The tune was The Star-Spangled Banner, 

“I used to think more of firecrackers an’ 
that kind of thing when I was a kid,” said 
Leslie. “But I guess all them firecracker 
jiggers went over the other side when the war 
come. ’Tain’t patriotic to spend money for 
’em now, these days. There’ll be bangin’ 
enough to suit everybody this July Fourth, I 
reckon, without firecrackers. We’re fightin’ 
for freedom in the same old way but our fire- 
crackers are bigger’n they used to be an’ it 
takes our boys in the trenches to handle ’em. 
Just as soon as I’m old enough, I’m goin’ 
over there to help, I am!” 

“Me too,” said Lyman. “It’s all right doin’ 
one’s bit here on a farm but I’m goin’ to help 
’em win the war I” 

Leslie laughed. “Sounds as if you was 
goin’ to do the whole of it,” he chuckled. 

Arne laughed. “Wish I could go, too,” he 
smiled. “I’d like it — oh, I’d like to be in a 
big battle an’ hear the noise an’ see the guns 


ARNE’S FOURTH OF JULY RATTLE 


123 


an’ get right at the enemy an’ plant a flag 
where it’d wave for victory! Ifd be great! 
I’d rather flght in this war than any other 
that ever was — ^more’n Bunker Hill or Lex- 
ington, I would.” He stopped. Across his 
mind there flashed the phrase he had so often 
seen, “Help win the war.” It was on so many 
posters that the government used, and weren’t 
the thrift stamps helping to win the war? 
Surely they were 1 

Lyman broke in upon these thoughts. 
“You couldn’t go for a long time, kid,” he 
teased. “You’re just a colt. You don’t have 
to work in the fleld a-gettin’ that hay fixed 
tomorrow! There’s circuses for you yet. It’s 
work for us men, though, double-time work, 
too. We’ll be doin’ our bit in the field on 
Fourth of July. It mayn’t seem glorious as 
a celebration but it’s all we can do till we’re 
at camp for trainin’.” 

No circus for Lyman and Leslie! Work 
in the field on Fourth of July! Arne stopped 
swinging his feet and looked thoughtful. 
Maybe he wasn’t living up to the colors, after 
all! How about the money for that thrift 
stamp? Suppose every boy and girl should 


124 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


buy a circus ticket instead of a thrift stamp — 
how about Uncle Sam’s helping to win the 
war with that money? 

Nobody knew that there was a battle going 
on. Nobody heard it. Nobody saw it. The 
battle was between Uncle Sam’s need and 
Arne’s love of fun. It was a hot battle. 
Sometimes it went a little in favor of Arne’s 
love of fun and then, again, it came back to 
Uncle Sam’s need. Arne slid down from the 
hay-wagon quietly and slipped off to the 
house. He was quiet at supper time. At 
sunset, he went out to take in the flag. It 
always waved from the white flag-pole in 
front of the house. As the colors touched his 
hands, Arne knew which had won. It was 
Uncle Sam, of course! 

He jogged into Danville creamery on the 
morning of the Fourth of July with Christo- 
pher’s reins flapping hard as they passed by 
the big poster. He met Harold. He told 
him. ‘T guess this year I won’t go to the cir- 
cus, after all,” he explained. ‘T want to help 
Uncle Sam win this war — ’tain’t much I can 
do but I can give the money for the stamp.” 

And when he rattled into the big red 


ARNE’S FOURTH OF JULY RATTLE 125 

barn afterwards, he was whistling The Star 
Spangled Banner. “I’ll bet we win this war!” 
he shouted to Lyman who was bringing in a 
load of hay. “I’m goin’ to work with you men 
today — I’m not a-goin’ to any kid circus, I 
ain’t!” 



The Blackberry Adventure 


THE AVGUST SURPRISE 


Ever since the Surprise Booh had come to 
Marjorie, she had been wondering what was 
in that first very lumpy big pocket that was 
marked for August first. She had felt of it 
repeatedly and guessed all manner of things 
that Dotty said weren't at all right. Indeed, 
it would have been hard to guess for Dotty 
had put the first August surprise into a flat 
box. When the box was opened, there lay a 
bright penny. Whoever would have guessed 
it! That was a splendid surprise! The 
August story was directed to be opened 

" On> a warm summer afternoon/* 

As there were no other directions, Marjorie 
opened it upon the first of August, That 
truly was a hot day — a day to make one wish 
to sit still and. read of the happy adventures 
of the little girls who went berrying in '^The 
Blackberry Adventure," 


X 


The Blackberry Adventure 

T hey came upon the old house one day 
when they were out blackberrying in 
vacation time. It was the kind of 
house that people used to build long ago. It 
had a long, sloping roof behind and the roof 
ran down almost to the ground. The house 
was very weather-beaten and out of repair. 
It looked battered and forlorn. Of course, it 
had long been deserted. Weeds grew rank in 
its front yard. It was far away from any 
neighbors. Solita and Sue had wandered far 
from the village. They hardly knew just how 
they had reached the place where so many 
berries grew, but they knew it was far from 
where they V'^ere boarding that summer. 

Nobody seemed to have lived in the house 
for ever so long. Creepers covered the fence 
and what was once a roadway, leading toward 


130 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


the rear, was all overgrown. There were 
blackberry bushes thick everywhere. 

At first Solita and Sue didn’t think much 
about the house, though it was rather a sur- 
prise to have come upon it suddenly. They 
had explored the different roads in the coun- 
try near White Farm but never a deserted 
house had they found yet. At first both Solita 
and Sue did not observe it because they were 
all-absorbed in berry-picking. It was won- 
derful how fast the pails filled up with big, 
juicy, ripe fruit! 

Solita had her pail full and was picking 
more berries to fill her white canvas hat. She 
didn’t stop to think that the berries would 
ruin it — she just wanted to get as many ber- 
ries as possible! The hat was all she had to 
use. Sue was racing with her and her basket 
was nearly full. There must have been at 
least three quarts. It was mu»h more roomy 
than the tin pail or Solita’s hat. 

The rest of the children who had started 
from White Farm with Sue and Solita were 
lagging along the roadside in the rear. Just 
how far away they were, the two leaders did 
not bother to consider. There was Albert, the 


THE BLACKBERRY ADVENTURE 


131 


baby, and he was bound to go slowly with 
Matilda. Probably some of the children were 
just fooling in the brook or sitting by the 
wayside. It was not everybody who was as 
energetic as Sue and Solita that hot day! 

So Solita and Sue, proud to outdo all the 
others, picked fast and furiously and did not 
stop. Step by step they had progressed to 
this wonderful, wonderful berry patch beside 
the old house. All of a sudden, Solita shouted, 
“I’ve won!” She made her way with difficulty 
through the tangle, holding her hat, piled 
high. The tin pail hung upon her arm and 
dropped berries at every step. 

“Let’s see?” Sue questioned. “I don’t be- 
lieve it; you come here an’ we’ll compare.” 

So the two floundered around in the high 
growth of weeds and made for the first clear 
space that there seemed to he. They met at 
the stone doorstep of the old house and put 
their load of berries down there upon its 
broad, flat tableland. 

My! But they were a sight! Solita’s pink 
gingham dress was tom in several places and 
her arms were a sight to behold — all red 
scratches. Her fingers were stained and 


132 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


grimy and her cap, too, was a sight. As for 
Sue, her green chambray was purple with 
berry juice, although she seemed to have 
escaped the rents from thorny creepers. But 
the two were happy and they didn’t care much 
how they looked. They simply dumped all 
the berries on the doorstep and compared the 
two piles. These seemed even, so the two 
thought they would rest for a while and then 
start back to tell the lagging children behind 
and urge them to hurry up. 

But Solita decided that it was no use to go 
away back on the road to call the others. 
They might be a mile or more back, she said. 
“No, don’t let’s do that! Let’s try to pick all 
there are and then go home and surprise 
everybody.” 

“But, Solita,” Sue suggested, “we haven’t 
anything to put all the berries in. How could 
we do that?” 

“I could gather up my skirt,” Solita volun- 
teered. “We could pick into that. It’s 
already all ruined so I don’t mind using it — 
it’s an old last year’s frock.” 

“Mercy me, Solita! What would your 
mother say to that!” Sue exclaimed, aghast. 


THE BLACKBERRY ADVENTURE 


133 


“The very idea! No, we’ll have to find some- 
thing else.” 

“Do you suppose there’d be anything to 
hold them if we were to look around here?” 
questioned Solita. “Maybe we might find 
something — an old pail or cooking pan that 
has been thrown away.” 

“There might be something inside the 
house,” Sue mused. “That’s very likely, but 
I don’t know if we could get in or not. We 
can try. I’m going to push the door. Do you 
suppose we can get in?” They had prowled 
aroimd the house to what must have been the 
back door. But that back door wouldn’t give 
at all. It was tight. 

The windows seemed shut fast, too. Sue 
said it made her feel like a burglar to try them, 
but since the house had been without a tenant 
for so long, of course it was not burglaring, 
she said. 

After they had investigated many nooks 
and found nothing in the near-by shed, either, 
Solita suggested that they try the front door. 
“People always leave things behind when they 
move,” she declared. “I’m sure, if we could 
get in, we’d find a box or a pan or a basket. 


134 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Even an old sack might answer — anything 
that is like a bag could be used.’’ 

But when the two came to the front door- 
stone where the two big piles of berries lay, 
Solita sat down on one side and did not try 
the door. 

‘Tfou open the door, Sue,” she said. 

“No, you try it!” 

“You’re afraid something will ju!mp out at 
you!” 

“No I’m not!” retorted Sue. “What’s 
there to be afraid of, anyway?” 

“I don’t know,” said Solita. “But it’s kind 
of spooky, I think. Let’s go home.” But 
with that Solita rose and pretended to try 
the door. She didn’t push it at all. 

“Oh, I can get it open! You’re not push- 
ing,” Sue exclaimed. “We’ll do it together. 
You turn and I’ll push — ^what’s the use of 
backing down? Let’s go in.” So the two to- 
gether pushed and pulled and the door sud- 
denly yielded. Its latch must have been very 
old and rusty indeed! 

The opening of the door came as a real 
surprise, and it swung back against the wall 
inside the house with a loud bang that echoed 


THE BLACKBERRY ADVENTURE 


135 


through all the lonely darkness of the hallway. 
There was only a little light that came from 
the slats of broken blinds here and there in 
the open room that was just off the hall. 

Sue took the lead. Solita followed, ready 
to run back at any minute. It was certainly 
an adventure, this entering in upon the soli- 
tude of that deserted house, long closed. ‘T 
don’t think it’s at all nice to go into people’s 
houses while they’re away,” she urged. ‘T’m 
going back. I think we ought not to have 
come in here at all — it’s ever so dark. I can’t 
see anything — 'Where’re you. Sue?” 

“I’m not a scare-cat,” replied Sue. “You 
were the one who wanted to find the basket 
for the berries. Come ahead! It isn’t dark — 
this is lots of fun!” 

“I’m going to use my dress, anyhow,” pro- 
tested Solita. ‘T don’t want any basket.” 
But for the sake of company chiefly, perhaps, 
she followed Sue, who was investigating the 
empty house. Here and there she poked 
under dusty furniture and into old, vacant 
closets. There seemed to be no basket — ^not 
even an old box or tin pan, rusty from disuse. 
“Come ahead, Solita,” she kept saying. “No- 


136 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


body’s going to eat you up. If anybody 
comes for such a purpose, they can begin and 
eat up the blackberries that are on the door- 
step.” So she kept on hunting. Really, after 
a while, when they were used to the noise that 
their feet made and to the echo of their voices 
in the dim, closed rooms, it was rather inter- 
esting. All they found was a rusty hammer 
downstairs, so Sue decided to go above and 
look some more. 

Everything there was rickety and the stairs 
squeaked and frightened Solita but she 
laughed — indeed, she was beginning to get 
over her timidity and enjoy the quest. 

The chambers opened into the hall upstairs 
so that it looked like one big room except at 
one end of the rear room where the roof 
sloped. There was a real little bit of a room 
that must have belonged to some child. There 
were two little broken toy dishes in it on the 
floor. They were all thick with dust, so Sue 
did not pick them up. Solita was safely in 
the rear near the stairs. She declared from 
time to time that there was no basket and that 
they’d better go home but Sue kept on. It 
isn’t every day that one can have a real adven- 


THE BLACKBERRY ADVENTURE 


137 


ture. She enjoyed the creepy feeling that 
came with exploring dim comers. 

“When my great-great-grandfather was a 
little boy,” she mused, “he must have hved in 
a house like this. Father told me a story 
about how he used to slide down the roof and 
land on the grass below just for fim. Fancy 
doing a thing like that!” 

Solita didn’t appear much interested. But 
Sue went on, “It was during the American 
Revolution that he and my great-great- 
grandmother lived. He fought in it — I mean 
his father, I guess,” rambled Sue. She hardly 
knew what she was saying but she was chiefly 
trying to keep Solita from deserting the quest. 
“We might find a treasure in one of these 
closets,” she suggested. “Wouldn’t that be 
fine?” 

“Nobody goes off and leaves a treasure in 
an old house,” Solita snapped. 

“But it might have been hidden here by 
somebody and left till we came — ” 

“I don’t think so.” 

“Oh, yes, it might!” 

“Where — not up here!” 

“Oh, maybe down cellar,” rephed Sue, who 


138 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


had about finished her explorations upstairs. 
She had been peeping out of the window of 
the wee little room at the back of the house 
and had opened its window wide to let in the 
sunlight and fresh air. It was only a little 
window. 

“You’re not going to get me to go down 
cellar with you,” declared Solita. “I’m going 
hotme. There wouldn’t be any baskets or 
treasure there at all and there might be rats 
and mice or other things — and I won’t go!” 

“Then the treasure would be all my own, if 
I found it,” returned Sue. “Suppose it was 
a thousand dollars tied up in a bag!” 

“If you go a step down cellar, I’m going 
home,” said Solita stoutly. “I’m going this 
minute anyhow — good-bye!” She started 
toward the stairs. 

Sue felt rather obstinate. She decided that 
she would go down cellar even if Solita left 
her. She tried to close the little window that 
looked down the long slope of the roof but it 
was hard to gd: it closed again. She looked 
down the long slope and was half determined 
to slide down it and see how it felt. If her 
great-great-grandfather had done it, she 


THE BLACKBERRY ADVENTURE 


139 


could, too! Why not! It would be fun to 
creep out of the window and not follow Solita 
— just slide down over the shingles to the 
ground and run around to the front door and 
hide till Solita came and then jump out and 
call, hoo! But at this minute, she heard 
Solita scream and the scream was so terrified 
that Sue jumped toward the stairs. Solita 
was running toward her. “You can’t go down 
the stairs — Oh, don’t go that way!” she 
screamed. “A bear is sitting in the door- 
way. He growled when he heard me come 
down the stairs. He is on the doorstone — a 
big, big bear! What shall we do! We can’t 
get out! Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Why did we 
ever come into this house!” 

' “A real bear?” questioned Sue, grabbing 
fast to Solita’s torn frock. “Tell me — ^you 
just imagined it — ^you couldn’t have seen 
one! There aren’t any bears here!” 

But Solita struggled to free herself. “Oh, 
I saw him,” she insisted in a frightened wail. 
“He may be up here any moment. He’s so 
big he could push any door in and we’re 
caught! We’re caught!” 

Sue, half believing and against all entreaty. 


140 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


peeped over the winding balustrade rail. Yes. 
There mas a bear! Her heart went pat-pat- 
pat. A shiver ran down her baok. She felt 
cold all over and ready to sink down in a limp 
heap upon the floor. But she put a warning 
Anger to her lips and motioned Solita to stop 
crying. The first thing she thought of was to 
get Solita quietly into that little back room 
that had the open window that gave upon the 
long sloping roof — ^that was it! They could 
creep out quietly and then dash off over the 
back yard and into the woods. Then, per- 
haps, they could turn down and find the road 
and warn the other children! 

Sohta stood there shivering, but Sue 
dragged her toward the little room and closed 
the door. Solita was stupefied with the fear 
of that bear’s coming upstairs after them. At 
first she did not understand about the window, 
but Sue made her crawl through it first and 
told her to run toward the woods when she got 
down off the roof. ‘T’U come right after you,” 
she urged. “Go right on and I’ll follow. He 
won’t see us !” 

Poor Solita gathered her pink skirt about 
her and slid miserably and cautiously down. 


THE BLACKBERRY ADVENTURE 


141 


She was almost as afraid of falling suddenly 
as she was of the bear. Sue, however, made 
quick work of it, even as the great-great- 
grandfather must have done, though there 
were no bears after him. At the very end of 
the slope, she landed in a blackberry bush 
tangle, but she pulled herself free and helped 
Solita. Then the two of them darted toward 
the woods at the rear without a look back to 
see if the big bear were following or not. 
Solita was sure he was coming but Sue denied 
it. At last, badly out of breath, they reached 
the road, after plunging through thickets and 
being badly torn and scratched, after one or 
two excited tumbles over dead logs and much 
worry about the bear. 

As they turned the comer of the road near 
the brook, they came upon the children with 
little Albert. ‘‘Run, run!” they screamed, 
“run, run quick! There’s a bear coming!” 

Then, all in a crowd, they hurried on toward 
the road that led to White Farm. They had 
not gone very far when there appeared two 
men coming toward them. They were talking 
together in excited French. They stopped 
and asked if anybody had seen a big bear. 


14 ? 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


“Oui, oui,” nodded Solita and she launched 
out into a long talk in French that nobody else 
understood. It seemed that that was really 
the bear Sue and Solita had run away from 
and he wasn’t a wild bear but a tame one that 
would dance with a pole while the men sang 
French songs. They had stopped to get a 
drink of water at a farm and the bear had got 
off someway, when their backs were turned. 
They were delighted to know where he was 
and Solita and Sue, reassured, offered to show 
the way. So again they started toward the 
funny, old-fashioned house in a ci^owd 
together. 

They came upon the bear, still eating black- 
berries on the doorstone — ^he hadn’t budged! 
And when the Frenchmen called him, he came 
meekly. Then all the children stood around 
in the dooryard while the bear that Solita and 
Sue had escaped from danced and danced. 
He turned somersets, too! It was fun. 

And then the men took off their caps and 
turned and went down the overgrown drive- 
way and off up the road. The children were 
already busy with the blackberries. ‘T might 
go down cellar now, Solita,” laughed Sue, 


THE BLACKBERRY ADVENTURE 


143 


“but I don’t believe I want to. Maybe there’d 
be another bear there. I’ve had enough of 
one, even a tame one, haven’t you?” 

Solita laughed. “Our blackberries are all 
eaten,” she said. “We’d have to begin to pick 
again to fill the basket and the pail. I move 
we all go home, for I think it’s nearly lunch 
time.” 

But everybody wanted to go into the house 
and slide down the roof, while little Albert 
(made believe be was the bear and said 
“Grrr-r” on the doorstone. It really was a 
blackberry adventure for a summer day! 


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Betty Crusoe 


THE SEPTEMBER SURPRISE 


September was almost school time again. 
There seemed to he a long, hard thing in the 
September pocket that was not the story 
pocket, Marjorie said it felt as if it were a 
stick of candy. She had wanted to open the 
surprise long before September 13th, the date 
set, had come. But at last it was September 
13th and she tore open the seals that held that 
leaf of the Surprise Book's pocket tight. 
There was — why, a pencil! Why hadn't she 
ever guessed that! It was a pencil painted 
pink and it had a rubber at its end. It had a 
pretty card tied to it that said, ‘"Use this when 
you go to school tomorrow," The story 
Marjorie opened that evening after supper. 
It was called ''Betty Crusoe," 


XI 

Betty Crusoe 

A ll simimer Betty had been in the city. 
Then, the last day of September came 
an eventful invitation from a school- 
friend of her mother’s. “Dear Betty,” it ran, 
“I know your mother can’t be persuaded to 
leave daddy and the boys, but can’t you pack 
up and spend the rest of the vacation with me 
in my big house here at River by? I’m all 
alone for October.” So, in two days, there 
was Betty in Riverby! 

Mrs. Roberts and she took long motor rides, 
but the rest of the time — and much of the time 
— Betty had to amuse herself. She was 
always longing for a boat ride on the lovely 
blue river that was within sight of the house, 
but Mrs. Roberts never seemed inclined to 
go out rowing. It was one day when she was 
lonely and wishing for somebody her own age 
to play with that she wandered through the 


148 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


grounds down toward the shore. Some magic 
must have been at work, for right there upon 
the sandy beach sat a pink gingham dress 
much like Betty’s own! It turned as Betty’s 
white shoes crunched the coarse gravel. 
“Hello,” she greeted. “I was just wishing I 
had a girl to talk to and then you came!” 

Betty laughed. “I was just wishing, my- 
self,” she smiled. “I’m staying with Mrs. 
Roberts. Do you live next door?” 

The pink hair-ribbon bobbed. “I’m stay- 
ing with my aunt,” it said. “I just came from 
the West. I don’t know a soul my own age 
here and it’s stupid. Now that you’ve come, 
let’s have some fun together. My name’s 
Lydia. What’s yours?” 

It seemed to the two of them that they had 
known each other always and, naturally, hav- 
ing so begun, it appeared that the two of them 
were longing to go out upon the river for a 
row — and had been longing for that ever since 
they came to Riverby. 

“Don’t I wish we could find a boat!” 

“Do you know where there is one?” 

“No — and I’ve only rowed on the lake in 
the park — ” 


BETTY CRUSOE 


149 


“Well, never mind. You could row out a 
little way, if we could find a boat! Let’s!” 
“We wouldn’t go out very far — ” 

“No, not very far. I think we can find a 
boat if we walk along the shore — ” 

So the two trotted along the sandy rim of 
the river and, after a while, they did come 
upon a boat drawn high up. There were oars 
in it and it appeared to be waiting for the two, 
just as Lydia had been waiting for Betty a 
half hour before. They didn’t stop to think. 
They merely accepted the boat as they had 
accepted each other. It was part of the ad- 
venture, of course. With frantic tugging, 
they finally laimched the boat and Betty took 
the oars. 

As she dipped them, “I’ve got to be back 
by four,” she said. “Mrs. Roberts asked me 
to go calling — pity me, Lydia, I’ll have to 
come back and put on my best dress. I’d 
rather stay on the river — I hope you’ve a 
watch with you. I didn’t bring mine.” 

“No, I haven’t any watch but I can tell time 
by the sun,” reassured Lydia. “Do you know, 
Betty, I’m longing to know what’s just 


150 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


around the bend of the river. We can go that 
far, can’t we?” 

“Sure,” replied Betty, bravely. She did 
not say that her arms were already rather 
tired. She waited for Lydia to offer to take 
the oars. 

But when they reached the bend, right 
there in the very center of the river was a big 
wooded island. Its shore was overhung with 
dark pine trees. It was a most fascinating 
island ! 

“Oh, row over to the island, Betty,” 
screamed Lydia. “I do so want to go there! 
We can stop for a bit and then come back and 
you’ll be home in time to dress for that call.” 
So Betty, tired but very willing to prolong 
the fun, rowed on. 

They beached the boat near a rock, but 
while they were beaching it, out fell an oar! 
Before anybody could get it, it had floated 
far out beyond reach! Oh dear! Oh dear! 
Could anything ever be worse ! Oh dear, 
dear, dear! 

They sat upon the beach theVe under the 
pines and wondered what was going to 
happen. What indeed? The island seemed 


BETTY CRUSOE 


151 


nothing but woods, and the boats that passed 
by were too far away to hear what Betty and 
Lydia screamed at them. They evidently 
took the wild antics of the two pink dresses 
on the island beach as just so much joyous 
kind of greeting, nothing more. Neither 
Lydia or Betty could swim. So there was 
every reason to believe they would stay upon 
that island forever. 

‘'My aunt didn’t know I was going off any- 
where,” wailed Lydia. “She’d never think of 
my being Tierer 

“And Mrs. Roberts is expecting me to be 
dressed for calling at four!” 

“I don’t know what we’re going to do!” 

“Neither do I!” 

It seemed so utterly hopeless that the two 
put their arms aroimd each other and cried 
hard on each other’s pink gingham shoulders. 
Yet, as crying did not mend matters, Betty 
decided to make a petticoat flag and wade as 
far out as possible to hail the next boat. There 
was a rocky point that might be a good station. 
So she and Lydia paddled out there, leaving 
shoes and stockings on the shore. 

The sun was gradually sinking toward the 


152 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


West. Lydia insisted that it must be at least 
half past four or five. , She was sure they 
would have to camp out upon the island all 
night and was tearfully worrying about bears 
— “There always are bears in the woods, 
Betty,” she said. “I don’t want to stay here 
all night, oh dear! Don’t you suppose that a 
boat ever will come around the bend and see 
our signal?” But it was long after that that 
at last a launch sped by, leaving in its wake 
a track of white foam. No use to scream! 
The launch simply did not hear or see and 
there were but two in it, a lady and a man who 
was at the rear. 

“Mrs. Roberts has a parasol exactly that 
shade,” wailed Betty. “It might be her out 
looking for me only she wouldn’t think I had 
gone out on the river. Since I’ve been here, 
we never have been boating. She’s probably 
hunting for me in town or else she’s gone to 
call without me by this time. Maybe she 
thinks I forgot the call and went to ^walk. 
Then, of course, she’d not be worrying or 
looking for me till supper time.” 

“But I should think they’d have stopped 


BETTY CRUSOE 


153 


the launch when they heard us scream, ‘Help !’ 
They must have heard!’’ 

“No,” disagi’eed Betty. “Maybe they 
never noticed or they thought we were just a 
silly picnic party playing Robinson Crusoe.” 

Alas! 

“Well, we’ve got to stay here, Lydia.” 

“It’s our pimishment, I suppose.” 

“Maybe we deserve it for taking a boat that 
didn’t belong to us.” 

They sat on the rock for a long time won- 
dering what more they could do and then 
Betty realized that she was fearfully hungry. 
Lydia, too, at the same time, longed for a 
couple of sandwiches. “We might go look to 
see if there are berries in the woods,” they 
agreed. 

There were no berries, of course. There 
was only wintergreen and that wasn’t satisfy- 
ing. They found remnants of some picnic’s 
old boxes — but that was all. The picnic must 
have been there weeks ago for its boxes were 
mere pulp now — oh dear! 

Betty’s pink dress was torn and scratched 
by brambly twigs that were in that woods. 
Lydia’s hair had lost its ribbon and trailed 


154 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


down her back in a loose tangle. The two of 
them were begrimed like two tramps when, 
finally, Betty discovered a footprint that 
looked as if it were newly made. “Friday, 
Man Friday,’’ she screamed, “Look! There 
must be somebody on this island, if we can 
only find the one to whom this belongs! Hoo- 
ray, maybe we’ll be rescued yet! Let’s follow 
in the same direction and see if we do find an- 
other picnic party — if they haven’t gone 
home !” 

“Oh, I hope they haven’t — I don’t want to 
spend the night here with nothing to eat — Oh 
dear!” 

And then they found a path! 

There was another footprint upon the path 
too! 

Betty and Lydia hurried on, their hearts 
beating excitement. When they turned sud- 
denly, the woods ceased abruptly and they 
found themselves in full view of a summer 
camp! 

With one wild shout, Betty ran forward to 
its landing. There, there was a launch and in 
it the two who had passed on the river and 
beside them, too, were other people. The 


BETTY CRUSOE 


155 


launch was just about to start when Betty 
with Lydia at her heels darted upon the dock 
waving wild arms. “Stop, stop,” they cried. 
And then Betty saw who the lady was — why, 
why, it was — it was Mrs. Roberts ! It was! 

On the way home, Mrs. Roberts said that 
she hoped Betty wouldn’t decide to play Rob- 
inson Crusoe again. She looked very sober. 
“Our call might have been planned for to- 
morrow,” she smiled. “The camp would have 
been closed then and whatever would you and 
Lydia have done on the island all night!” 

“I don’t know,” returned Betty. “I’m ever 
so sorry. Lydia is too.” 



The Magical Circle 


THE OCTOBER SURPRISE 


October's first surprise was easy to guess, 
as it was marked to open on Marjorie's birth- 
day, which was the twenty -second. She said 
it was a birthday present — but she did not 
guess that the birthday present wa^ a pretty 
handkerchief as well as a birthday card! That 
was fun! The story was a Hallowe'en story, 
so it was marked to open on the afternoon 
of October thirty-first. It was called, ''The 
Magical Circle," 


XII 

The Magical Circle 

T he family moved into the new house 
about the first of October. It was the 
first time that Mark and Marjorie had 
ever moved and the event was full of novelty. 
The new house was a big one in the country 
and the two found much to explore in the first 
weeks of arrival. 

Mark was always romancing. He believed, 
maybe, if he were to hunt long enough, he 
might find something interesting that had 
been left by former tenants. He was sure 
that there were secret drawers in the old 
desk that was in the bam and he spent hours 
trying to find them. Then, too, he went about 
tapping the walls of the house to see if they 
emitted a hollow sound. He was sure, he 
said, that there must be secret panels with 
things hidden behind them. 

Marjorie only laughed at Mark’s romanc- 


160 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


ing. She half believed in it. It was fun, 
anyway. So she followed Mark’s tapping 
and listened to the knocks. One day when 
the paperers were busy, Mark went into a 
store-closet that adjoined the room and some- 
how he did find a place that was hollow. It 
was back of a board shelf in the closet and, 
when opened, was quite a hiding place. There 
was nothing in it. Marjorie insisted that it 
was where the gas pipes had been before elec- 
tricity was installed. ^But Mark called it 
triumphantly the secret panel. He talked a 
great deal about it and showed it to the neigh- 
bor’s children, Eleanore and Mabel and Rich- 
ard. He even persuaded Mother to hide some 
silver in the place for safe keeping. And she 
did it, she said, laughingly, to please him. 

One might have thought that Mark would 
stop romancing, after having discovered a 
secret panel, but he didn’t rest satisfied. Hav- 
ing read a story about two boys who found a 
lost will in a trunk in an old attic, Mark be- 
came interested in the possibilities of their 
newly acquired one. There were three rooms 
up there, two of them used to store the 
family’s trunks. The third room Mark 


THE MAGICAL CIRCLE 


161 


appropriated and made into what he called 
his ‘‘den.” 

The “den” had an old matting upon its 
floor. The matting had been there when 
Mark and Marjorie moved into the new 
home. Mark always accepted it and had 
never found any romantic suggestions coming 
from that source till one night, Richard hav- 
ing been allowed to spend a night with him, 
they carried a mattress up there and slept on 
the floor, “for fun,” they said. Mark had a 
lantern and they talked till nearly two o’clock 
telling stories to each other. It was really 
great fun. Mark’s stoiries were full of adven- 
ture — some of them even were creepy, as it 
was nearing Hallowe’en day by day. And 
what was more fitting than right in the middle 
of Mark’s last thriller, there should be a 
strange rattle and a clinking noise! It made 
Mark hush and it made Richard jump. They 
looked at each other in frightened silence for 
a minute. 

“What was it?” asked Mark, as soon as he 
could breathe again calmly. 

“Oh, a mouse, I guess,” returned Richard. 

“A mouse, forsooth! Nay!” returned 


162 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


Mark, talking in a romantic way. “Me- 
thinks it is a strange noise, friend. It cometh 
from under this matting. I will take up the 
matting and if need be the floor and we shall 
see — ” Here he pulled up an end of old 
matting. 

Richard was wilhng to have another of 
Mark’s adventures, so he helped. It wasn’t 
hard to get it up — but when it was once up 
the most astonishing thing came to light. 
Even Richard was amazed. As for Mark, he 
was in his element of discovery. There upon 
the floor was a big round circle. The floor was 
painted but the circle was not! 

“What is it?” inquired Richard. 

Mark debated. “I don’t know,” he mused. 
“It’s evidently something!” He measured the 
circle. It was about three feet in diameter. 
He was for tearing up the flooring at once, 
only Richard reminded him that it would 
make a dreadful noise and wake everybody in 
the house up. Surely a fortune and a lost will 
must be under it! Richard silenced Mark’s 
objection to waiting till daylight and after 
school by saying that they would never be 


THE MAGICAL CIRCLE 


163 


allowed to sleep in the attic on a mattress 
again, if the two of them got into trouble. 
That was true. So they sat up, wrapped in 
blankets, listening for the sound that seemed 
to have gone away and also for other sounds 
that did not come. And they wondered ex- 
citedly how a circle like that should come to 
be upon an attic floor, if not purposely put 
there to mark something. Richard suggested 
that it might be an old astrologer’s room and 
that the circle was one upon which he might 
have cast horoscopes. That sounded rather 
fascinating but neither Mark nor Richard 
knew anything about astrologers or even what 
they did when they cast horoscopes. So this 
was rather romantic and they talked a great 
deal about it, once in a while switching off to 
goblins and Hallowe’en. Mark and Richard 
discussed, among other topics, v^hat they 
should do to make Hallowe’en truly exciting. 
They were going to dress up like witches and 
go to call upon some friends. Richard was 
planning to carry his black cat in a bag and 
they were going to wear masks. Probably 
Marjorie would beg to go too — ^girls always 


164 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


did want to go too — and they’d let her into 
the secret about the circle on the attic floor too, 
wouldn’t they? 

Richard assented. He and Marjdrie were 
good friends. 

“I tell you what!” exclaimed Mark, sud- 
denly, “After we’re dressed up, we’ll all 
come up here early in the evening. Maybe 
Mother and Daddy’ll have gone to the pic- 
tures. Then we’ll take up the floor and see 
what’s under the circle!” It seemed a thing 
quite flt for the night of Hallowe’en. 

Having decided this, they again unrolled 
the mattress, hid themselves in blankets and 
snored peacefully till dawn. 

In the morning, Mark put the matting over 
the very precious circle and the two went 
downstairs hinting at wonderful secrets of 
things they had found and strange noises they 
had heard. Marjorie said it seemed to her 
that she had heard a queer noise too — up over- 
head. She said it sounded like Mark tapping 
for secret panels. Then everybody laughed 
because of the memory of how Mark was shut 
up tight in the harness-closet once upon a 
time, a victim of his love of mystery and 


THE MAGICAL CIRCLE 


165 


adventure. Then Richard said he thought 
Mark had heard a mouse. 

“Mouse! Does a mouse rattle?” inquired 
Mark. “I guess you’ll find out!” And the 
subject strung itself out all through the day 
and on till Hallowe’en time came. Of course, 
in between, Mark had visited the attic and 
everybody had seen the circle. Everybody 
declared that it was a mystery. Nobody had 
ever seen anything like it upon an attic floor. 
Mother laughed. She was used to Mark’s 
imaginings. She said she didn’t connect it 
with a little harmless mouse gnawing at a hole. 

At the mention of a mouse gnawing, Mark 
became almost dramatic. “It was no mouse!” 
he declared. “Don’t I know what a mouse 
sounds hke!” 

Hallowe’en came, but even the fun of dress- 
ing up like witches lost the usual flavor. 
Mark, Marjorie and Richard were worked up 
to a pitch of excitement over the circle on the 
attic floor. They talked of nothing else. 
Mark had read up on astrology in the encyclo- 
pedia. He hadn’t imderstood it all but he 
talked as if he did and Marjorie was wonder- 
ingly proud of his knowledge, while Richard 


166 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


was willing to listen, though he corrected 
Mark’s statements now and then, having read 
up on the subject at the library himself. 

It was lucky that the picture theatre 
claimed Mother and Daddy that night. And 
the strange thing was that neither Mark nor 
Marjorie had begged to be taken too. They 
had come in at eight o’clock sharp, according 
to directions that Mother had insisted upon. 
They kept on their weird garments of sheets 
and shawls. Mark, lantern in hand, led the 
way to the dark attic room and the others 
followed. 

Then there began to be a real noise in 
that room as Mark hammered a chisel into 
the flooring. It seemed to be a very thick 
board flooring and it took time to get some 
nails out. But they yielded Anally, and the 
end of one floor-board that crossed the circle 
at its centre grew loose enough to be pried 
up. (Mark had insisted that he choose the 
centre of the circle. Nobody knew why, 
though they trusted him. He said that the 
center was the middle of a thing and that 
whatever was there would be exactly under it. 
This sounded plausible.) 


THE MAGICAL CIECLE 


167 


Then Mark had Richard take the chisel 
and wedge up the board a bit. It wouldn’t 
give very much, you know. He said Marjorie 
might hold the lantern and he’d peep into the 
darkness underneath and see what was there. 
Really, the moment was very exciting. No- 
body knew what Mark might see^ — ^they felt 
that he was brave to take the first look, for it 
might be ’most anything down there where 
Mark’s noise had come from! 

They were silent while Mark, lying flat 
down on the attic floor, peered under the lifted 
end of the board. ‘T see gold pieces,” he 
gasped. “Say, give me more light — it must 
be buried treasure I Didn't I say I'd find it!" 

Marjorie and Richard looked at each other. 
Was it true? “Let us see,” they urged. Rich- 
ard did peek. He said he couldn’t see very 
clearly but that there was something there that 
he thou^t looked like money. It was round 
and there was something that looked like a bag 
there — ^maybe a money bag! Marjorie was so 
excited that she couldn’t keep still long enough 
to see anything at all well. But she thought 
she saw something that looked like a piece of 
paper. Nobody else had seen that, so they all 


168 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


peeped again. “It is a lost will,” declared 
Mark. And they believed him. 

Then they fell to opening the flooring in a 
most reckless way. It really was dreadful — 
but when one is expecting to get at a money 
bag and a lost will, one does not stop to con- 
sider the flooring. The board was whacked 
beyond recognition. The hammer and chisel 
fell to work and the flooring yielded to the 
onslaught. Then — Mark lifted the board! 
Ah! — ^Ah-ha! — 

Richard held the lantern down so that 
it shone full upon the treasure; Marjorie 
gasped; Mark bent forward to see all there 
was to see. There was a pile of broken glass 
and some rags, corks — and buttons! Oh, yes, 
and there was a piece or so of white paper — 
not very large. The buttons were of metal, 
round brass buttons, tarnished and old. The 
paper was old white paper, yellow now. It 
was not a lost will at all! No, the money bag 
was just a round wad of cloth and Mark’s 
noise was — Mark’s noise was evidently a rat 
running around the rat’s nest that they had 
found! Alas, alas! There was no more mys- 
tery! The three had never seen a rat’s nest 


THE MAGICAL CIRCLE 


169 


before but Richard had heard about them. 
He said, from the first, he’d said it was a 
mouse — but everybody knows that a mouse is 
very different from a rat! 

After they had all recovered from the shock 
of their disappointment, they laughed a little. 
It really was funny — There they had been 
planning what they would do with all the 
money after it had been properly divided! Of 
course, the lost will would have given the 
money to the finders, you know. 

Mark fingered the buttons, grimy with 
much dust. “They don’t make buttons like 
this any more,” he said. “They are very in- 
teresting. I am glad I found them.” He 
said that they had not yet come to the end of 
the mystery. "'Why is there a circle on the 
attic floor?” he questioned. “Why?” 

Nobody could say. Then they heard 
Mother’s voice downstairs. “You’ll have to 
tell about the floor,” Marjorie suggested. 
“We can never get it down again.” 

So they did. It was a sorry group that said 
good-night, even after they had been forgiven. 

Next day when Mark returned from school. 


170 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


he heard the carpenter repairing the damaged 
floor up in his den and he rushed up there. 

“Say/’ he said, “what do you suppose any- 
body ever made a circle on the floor like that 
for unless it was an astrologer?” 

The carpenter laughed. “Sonny,” he 
smiled. “I’ve been in this house when there 
was a big cistern right here — Know what a 
cistern is? It’s what the family used to de- 
pend upon for water in the house. When 
they took it down, the floor that was painted 
all around it showed the circle where the cis- 
tern had stood. That’s all. It wasn’t any 
astrologer that made it.” 

After that, somehow, the news about the 
cistern’s having been Mark’s mysterious circle 
in dim ages past, leaked out. Richard and 
Marjorie and Mabel and Eleanore plagued 
him forever after — but, anyway, Mark says, 
some day when he does find a fortune and a 
lost will, they’ll stop laughing at him. Maybe 
that’s true. 


Ermelindas Family 


THE NOVEMBER SURPRISE 


November's first surprise pocket was 
another strange mystery. Dotty always 
chuckled when Marjorie asked her to tell 
what it was, can't'' she laughed, ^"It's a 
joke!" So poor Marjorie had to quiet her 
curiosity and wait till the very day before 
Thanksgiving, Then she ripped open the 
Surprise Book's surprise and undid the paper 
that she found wrapped around that queer 
lumpy ‘bumpy-feeling thing. You couldn't 
guess what Dotty had put in — it was a wish- 
bone, ^'Good wishes for a fine Thanksgiving 
dinner" it said. As for the story, that was 
dated to read on the evening before Thanks- 
giving, It was called '‘Ermelinda's Family" 
and it was a Thanksgiving story. 


XIII 

Ermelinda’s Family 

E RMELINDA entered High School in 
September. Then, too, she contributed 
to the High School magazine. Going 
to and from school she hunted for themes to 
use in school compositions. She meant to 
write a story some day! That was Erme- 
linda’s ambition. 

As she looked over magazines at home, she 
imagined how her name would look printed. 
Once when she was looking over a big fashion 
paper, she turned to a department page and 
found that there was a chance to correspond 
with an editor lady. So she at once wrote and 
between the two there grew up a friendly in- 
tercourse upon paper. Ermelinda confided 
her desire to write stories, and though none 
were awarded prizes in the department, yet 
Ermelinda regarded the editor lady as a 
friend. And once she told her how the school 
had solicited Liberty Bond subscriptions, 


174 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


The boys and girls had volunteered for the 
work, going together from house to house. 
Ermelinda enjoyed the luck of selling nine 
bonds on subscription and one fifty dollar one 
outright. It was all very interesting indeed. 
Ermelinda grew more and more enthusiastic 
and her patriotism flamed hot. She went over 
the territory assigned and then, on her own 
hook, took up new territory. It was in rather 
a shabby quarter of the town but one of the 
girls was with her. So they entered a door- 
way and went into a tenement. She was sur- 
prised to see it so gray and destitute. 

They knocked at the first landing, but 
though they met with a fair reception, they 
sold nothing. At the second landing it was 
the same. Ermelinda caught glimpses of bare 
poverty in the rooms as the door opened at her 
knock. She had always known that such 
things were, but the vivid picture of them had 
never been presented. So she mounted to the 
top floor and knocked. The door opened. It 
was a thin little ragged boy who opened the 
door and there were more thin little ragged 
boys inside — yes, and little girls and a baby 
and a mother and a father. All of them were 


ermelinda’s family 


175 


SO poor and so unhappy! Ermelinda ex- 
plained her errand but, of course, it was hardly 
any use I Ermelinda wrote to her editor about 
it that evening. The editor answered, “Well, 
wouldn’t it be rather jolly to surprise that 
family with a basket of good things for 
Thanksgiving Day?” 

Oh, indeed it would! She could get the 
girls at High School to help! She began to 
plan what to put into the basket. On the way 
to school the next day she told everybody she 
met. Ermelinda had a most engaging way of 
putting facts in story form. But though some 
contributed five or ten or twenty-five cents, 
there were others who drifted off as soon as 
money was mentioned. Then Stella Wilkins 
came by and Ermelinda grabbed her. 

“Say, Stella,” she began, “don’t you want to 
help, too? I’m getting up a basket for Thanks- 
giving for a poor family I found in a tene- 
ment, they are — ” but right here she stopped 
short. Stella’s expression was almost fright- 
ened. For the first time, Ermelinda noticed 
that Stella might be classed as “poor.” 
Ermelinda had never thought much about 
poverty before or noticed whether the boys 


176 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


and girls who came to classes showed signs of 
need. She had always liked Stella. “There 
are some children,” went on Ermelinda. 
“The little things look sick and hungry. 
We’re planning to give them a perfectly 
splendid Thanksgiving — I haven’t a cent to 
my name but I’m nabbing everybody I see — ” 

Stella smiled. “Guess you know, Erm, I 
really can’t, though I’d like to,” she said. 
“But father lost his wwk this fall and we’ve 
all had to do without things. I’m trying ever 
so hard to get my little sister a winter coat. 
She hasn’t any and she can’t go to school till 
she has one — It’s awfully hard, Erm. I’m 
glad you’re helping themr 

Ermelinda put an arm around Stella. “I’d 
like to work, too, to get that coat,” she said. 
“I’ve been lucky all my life and had things 
done for me but I’d be mighty proud if I 
could buy my little sister a coat if she needed 
one!” 

They walked toward the class together. 
Somehow, they had become real friends. 

She rushed home the next afternoon early 
in order to go buy the basket with one of the 
girls. Oh, Ermelinda’s family was to have 


ermelinda’s family 


177 


the dandiest Thanksgiving that there ever had 
been! 

She put a gay crepe tissue paper table-set 
into the basket. It had a tablecloth and nap- 
kins with bright colored fruits upon it. Then 
all the other things were packed tight and the 
basket was very heavy and very tempting 
when Ermelinda’s busy fingers had finished. 
It was put away in the pantry closet to stand 
there safely till the time should come. 

Next day Ermelinda found Kitty Fowler, 
who volunteered to help. “You see, Kitty, I 
can’t carry that big basket all alone myself,” 
she explained. “I do need somebody ever so 
much.” 

“Then I’ll help and I’ll be at the corner 
waiting for you at four o’clock.” 

When she reached the comer with tired 
arms, Kitty was not there. Ermelinda waited. 
It was frightfully windy and cold. It seemed 
as if it might snow for there was penetrating 
dampness and chill in the air. She thought of 
Stella trying to buy the coat for a little sister 
— she wondered if, by now, the little sister had 
it. She hoped so. She wondered how Stella 


178 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


had earned the money — Still Kitty did not 
come. It was growing dusk. 

Ermelinda decided that Kitty must have 
forgotten. She was that kind — ^^always ready 
to help but not responsible. It was too late to 
go home and get mother — beside that, mother 
was tired. The boys were out skating. There 
was no reason why she, Ermelinda, should not 
go alone. So she tugged the big basket and 
the bundle onward. Her arms ached and she 
had to stop more than once to turn ’round 
about, taking the basket in the other hand and 
changing the bundle. Somehow she reached 
the right street and the door that led to her 
family up there on the top floor. Somehow 
she reached the landing. She put the basket 
down and knocked. She had planned how 
nice it would be just to hand the basket in and 
say, “Santa Claus came for Thanksgiving and 
brought you this.” Then she would run away 
and they would call, “Thank you! Thank 
you!” 

Maybe they had not heard; Ermelinda 
knocked loudly again. No answer! She 
knocked again. All was silent! Then a 
woman in a blue apron came out upon the 


ermelinda’s family 


179 


second floor landing and screamed up at her, 
“They’ve moved away. What d’you want 
anyhow? That family went off last week — 
Nobody’s there!” 

At last, Emielinda understood! But the 
woman did not know where they had gone. 
She suggested that Ermelinda ask the janitor 
on the first floor. 

It crossed Ermelinda’s mind that she might 
give the basket to the woman on the second 
landing, but as she came down the wide-open 
door showed a table with food upon.it. The 
janitor didn’t know where that family had 
gone — ^he said the man had work and they 
had gone away. Yes, they had been in hard 
straits for a while — didn’t pay rent at all, he 
said. But now there was nothing for Erme- 
linda to do about it. The bitter disappoint- 
ment of the expedition made a lump in Erme- 
linda’s throat — ^why, if the fairy godmother 
had come to help Cinderella and had not found 
her, that is about how the fairy godmother 
would have felt! 

Little Lady Boimtiful almost cried but she 
took up the packages and walked home. She 
told mother all the story and then she wept. 


180 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


There were all those good things for some- 
body’s happy Thanksgiving and where should 
they go? 

At last, mother suggested that she herself 
would buy the things in the basket and that 
Ermelinda might give the money to some 
public charity. She wrote her editor and 
asked what to do. The editor wrote back and 
said she thought Ermelinda was right: that 
the boys and girls might be told, perhaps, but 
that since they had given the money with- 
out sacrifice, it ought to be used to help 
some need. Ermelinda received the letter 
from the postman just as she started for 
school. She opened it in the cloak-room and 
there she met Stella, who was just hanging her 
tarn upon a neighboring hook. 

They went into class. Suddenly in the 
midst of her conjugating of a Latin verb, a 
thought came to Ermelinda — Oh, how about 
the coat for Stella’s little sister? She would 
find out! At noon, she found Stella, eating 
lunch upon a bench. “Say, Stella,” she began, 
“we’re friends. Tell me, did you get it — that 
coat for your little sister?” 

Then Stella told her. No! There was no 


ermelinda’s family 


181 


coat. She couldn’t get that work. The little 
sister had colds and Stella was worried. As 
they talked, Stella told Ermelinda just how 
bitterly blue everything was. They parted as 
the bell rang for classes. 

After school, Ermelinda labored over a 
letter that it was rather fun to write. She 
worked hard because of the fact that she was 
trying to disguise her handwriting. The let- 
ter was from Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother 
to Stella and inside the envelope, sealed with 
a blue bird seal, Ermehnda put the money! 
Then she sent the letter inside another to her 
editor in the city and asked her to mail it there. 
She told her Cinderella’s fairy had asked her 
to send this letter to somebody who mustn’t 
know where the Fairy Godmother hved. And 
the editor mailed the letter in the city. So the 
deed was done. 

It was about three or four days afterwards 
that Stella came upon Ermelinda studying 
hard, her head in a book. ‘T want to tell you, 
you were so interested,” she beamed. “My 
little sister’s got the coat, only I didn’t really 
give it to her myself. The money came in a 
letter that was mailed in the city. It was ever 


182 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


such a dear letter and signed by Cinderella’s 
Fairy Godmother. I think it must have been 
from a real fairy, somehow, but I don’t know 
who could have known about the coat — I don’t 
know anybody else who might have sent it, 
unless it was a real fairy!” 

“I’m glad your little sister has the coat,” 
Ermelinda chuckled. 


The Directory Santa Claus 


THE FIRST DECEMBER SURPRISE 


When Dotty had made the Surprise Booh 
upon that memorable day when she had not 
been able to go to school, she had calculated 
wrongly, so Marjorie's Surprise Booh had 
more than the usual number of leaves and it 
lasted till the following Christmas, The first 
surprise of that December which closed Mar- 
jorie's Surprise Booh seemed very thick and 
fat indeed. It proved to be two stories in place 
of one and with them was a Christmas card, 
^"I'm sorry that the Surprise Booh must end," 
sighed Marjorie, '"Aren't you. Dot?" And 
of course. Dotty held out hopes that Santa 
Claus might bring another! I shouldn't won- 
der if he did, for Santa Claus likes to make 
surprises. Maybe it was he, hhnself, who had 
told Mother how to make the first Surprise 
Booh, long ago. They each chose one of the 
Surprise Book's Christmas surprise stories 
for Mother to read aloud on Christmas after- 
noon when the stories were opened. Dotty's 
came first. It was "The Directory Santa 
Claus," 


XIF 


The Directory Santa Claus 

C HRISTMAS holidays had begun and 
school was out. The scholars had 
spoken Christmas pieces that told of 
gift-giving and Santa Claus. 

Rose Schneider and Lili Fifer, with school- 
books under their arms, pushed open the heavy 
oak door of the big city library and trotted 
with one accord upstairs to join the line of 
children waiting to get in. 

‘T got a dandy book,” Lili volunteered as 
they wedged into the waiting line. ‘Tt was 
all about a little girl that went to see Santa 
Claus. I’m bringin’ it back now. Say, Rose, 
you get it on your card. It’s an awfully nice 
story.” 

But Rose shook her head. The thin snub 
of her nose turned up even higher than ever. 
It added emphasis to her refusal. ‘"There 


186 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


ain’t any Santa Claus,” she said. ‘‘I never 
had any Christmas presents from him.” 

“Well,” Lili insisted, “I ain’t either but I 
think there is a Santa Claus all right. He 
don’t know us, maybe, but he’s awfully good to 
some children. My cousin that goes to Sun- 
day School gets a doll, and a box of candy, 
and an orange from him every Christmas. He 
has a long white beard an’ he’s ever so jolly!” 

“Salvation Armies, they make Santa 
Clauses. They’re not real — only anybody 
dressed up. Most likely your cousin’s Santa 
Claus was like that,” Rose retorted. “The 
Salvation Army Santa Clauses they always 
stand by the street corners to catch Christmas 
dinner pennies in their pails.” 

“No. ’Twasn’t that kind of a Santa Claus! 
He^s reair 

“Well, you won’t find him in no directory 
Rose argued. “You just go an’ look. All real 
folks’ names is in it an’ you won’t find Santa 
Claus. There ain't any!” 

With this parting thrust. Rose squeezed 
through a sudden opening in the line and 
escaped into the reading room beyond. 

Lili waited for her book to be discharged. 


THE DIRECTORY SANTA CLAUS 


187 


then she raised a questioning little hand 
toward the lady at the library desk. 

“Please,” she asked, “where is the directory 
book?” 

“Downstairs,” the librarian answered. 
And downstairs Lili went. 

The directory book was really very, very big 
indeed. It was almost a pity that it couldn’t 
be a story book, for one could never have done 
with a story book that size. There’d always be 
something new to read in it. When the fat 
volume was opened on its desk, Lili studied it 
at random trying to make out what it all 
meant. She decided to begin at the very be- 
ginning, so she commenced with A, turned on 
to B, and ran her forefinger down page after 
page. It took a great deal of time and 
patience. The text was very small and Lili 
was afraid she might overlook it. Down page 
after page it travelled till it came to Claus — 
Oh, there it was: Claus, Adolph, carpenter! 
No. That couldn’t be Santa Claus — the 
whole name wasn’t right. And beside that, 
he wasn’t a carpenter, Lili felt sure. 

How many people there were by the name 
of Claus! Well, with patience, one might find 


188 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


the right one! “Then I shall hell Rose that 
there is a Santa Claus for sure,” thought Lili. 
On down the list she went. 

There was an S. T. Claus. That was the 
nearest to it. Who knows what that S. T. 
might mean in the way of abbreviation? The 
address was not far from the library. Lili 
decided to go down the avenue and find out if 
it were where the real Santa Claus lived. 

The long winter twilight was beginning 
when Lili came out of the library. Already 
the lights from the grocery and the drug-store 
on the corner beyond warmed the cold gray 
stone of the pavement with red light. Further 
over, past the intersecting street, an arc lamp 
made a misty star in the dimness. Toward the 
star of light Lili made her way. 

Yes, yes, she was on the right side of the 
street — she was getting nearer, nearer! Lili’s 
heart went pit-a-pat. Oh, there it was — 
There it was ! It was a little shop that bore 
the number. Over its window was a sign, 
S. T. Claus. Somewhere Lili thought she had 
seen Santa Claus’ name written that way! It 
was the very place, no doubt! 

In the shop-window was a wee green tinsel- 


THE DIRECTORY SANTA CLAUS 


18 ^ 


covered tree. Toys were caught in the 
branches. They overflowed onto the broad 
base of the display-window — cats, dogs, carts, 
steam-engines, dolls, baby-carriages, jump- 
ing-jacks — Oh! 

Lili stood staring, transfixed with wonder, 
for — for there in the store, visible through the 
lighted window, was a small, jolly-looking, 
white-bearded man — exactly hke the picture 
of Santa Claus in the story book! To be sure, 
his white beard was not quite so long, and he 
wore a gray knit coat instead of a bright red 
one with white fur on it. But his occupation 
of stringing Christmas-tree chains was so very 
Santa- Claus-like, there could be no mistake in 
identity ! 

Just here, he came to the window and added 
a box of gay candles to the display of toys. 
He looked out at Lili through the frosty 
panes and smiled. ‘‘Hello,” he called by way 
of cheery greeting. 

“Hello,” returned Lili, and, somehow, be- 
fore she knew it, she was standing in the shop 
beside the worn counter, looking up into the 
merry face of Mr. Claus. 

“It was through the directory that I found 


190 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


you,” she smiled. “Rose Schneider, she says 
there ain’t no real Santa Claus — but I says 
there is for sure! A lot of children must have 
passed here an’ not known where Santa Claus 
lived maybe! But I found you!” 

Santa Claus doubled in a hearty chuckle. 
“And here I am all the time,” he laughed, 
“just every day.” 

“Didn’t anybody know you was the real 
Santa Claus?” Lili gazed confidently into the 
old man’s bright eyes. “They had ought to 
know by the sign,” she suggested. 

“How should they?” the little man replied. 
“Santa Claus — everybody knows he likes to he 
an ordinary citizen. You won’t tell the kids, 
will you?” 

Lili hesitated. “No, not if you don’t want 
I should. But there is Rose Schneider an’ she 
says there ain’t any real Santa Claus. It was 
through her saying that I found you in the 
directory. She said there wasn’t no such name 
there” — 

There was a silence. 

“I’ve got it,” he announced suddenly. “Just 
why don’t Rose believe in Santa Claus — be- 


THE DIRECTORY SANTA CLAUS 


191 


cause he never brought her any presents or 
what?” 

“I think it’s because you’ve forgot her 
mostly,” returned Lili. ‘‘I says to her you for- 
got me, too — but you didn’t know about us 
maybe.” 

He thought. 

“Where do you two kids live?” he ques- 
tioned. 

She told him. 

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said he. “I don’t 
want the other children to find it out that I 
am the real Santa Claus, so you’d better not 
tell them. You run home now an’ you keep it 
quiet. Wait till real Santa Claus time at 
Christmas! THEN, Rose will believe!” 

Ah, yes. And she did! It was a wonderful, 
wonderful Christmas for Lili and Rose. It 
was better even than Rose’s cousin’s Christ- 
mas, for they shared together a little tree that 
was left on Christmas Eve “From Santa 
Claus,” and each little girl had a doll, and 
some candy, and a game. “It’s from the real 
Santa Claus an’ I know him but you don’t, 
Rosie Schneider!” Lili beamed. 


192 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


And Rose retorted, “I do too believe in the 
real Santa Claus!” 

“I want a story about the real Santa Claus 
and the little girl,” she demanded of the libra- 
rian at the children’s reading room next day. 
“Lili Fifer, she says it’s an awfully good story 
and she likes I should know more about him. 
It’s true for sure, ain’t it?” 

And the librarian smiled. 


Mary Elizabeth ’s Soldierly 

Christmas 


THE SECOND DECEMBER 
SURPRISE 


Marjorie's Christmas story was called 
''Mary Elizabeth's Soldierly Christmas," 
She said she liked it better than the story 
Dotty chose from the Surprise Book's Christ- 
mas pocket. You can tell what you think 
about it for yourself, for here it is. 


XV 

Mary Elizabeth ’s Soldierly 
Christmas 

M ary Elizabeth looked up from 

the soldier scarf she was learning to 
knit. Her mother, in the rocker be- 
side Mary Elizabeth’s hassock, caught a bit 
of anxious thought that rested between Mary 
Elizabeth’s brown eyes. “What is it?” she 
asked, putting her hand down upon Mary 
Elizabeth’s to stop the knitting needles. 

“I was thinking,” Mary Elizabeth sighed, 
“just thinking. Mother. It’s going to be a 
very soldierly Christmas this year, isn’t it? 
But the children, — ^they don’t realize it and 
they’re thinking and talking about Santa 
Claus. Aire we going to have the tree this 
year?” 

Mary Elizabeth’s mother patted Mary 
Elizabeth’s hand softly. “We’ve always had 
one, haven’t we, daughter?” she said. “Can 


196 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


you remember the time when we did not have 
one?” 

“No,” laughed Mary Elizabeth. “I sup- 
pose it was when I was too small a baby ever 
to have a tree or so little that I didn’t know 
what the lights were and thought I would like 
to play with their sparkles — but I do remem- 
ber the tree we had when I was a little bit 
older. It was before any of the children came. 
I was about three years old, I think. You told 
me that the tree was made in honor of the little 
Christ Child’s birthday and I always thought 
you meant a little child like myself and ex- 
pected to see him — ” 

Mary Elizabeth paused. “Then I grew 
bigger, and by and by there were all the chil- 
dren and the baby, and I was the oldest and 
we all thought that a funny friend who was a 
jolly old man called Santa Claus brought us 
the toys we found in our stockings. We 
thought all the play was real — about his com- 
ing doiwn the chimney and about his sleigh 
with the eight reindeer. It used to seem 
strange that so big a man as Santa Claus could 
squeeze down our chimney and by and by I 
suspected it was all a play and you told me 


MARY ELIZABETH'S SOLDIERLY CHRISTMAS 197 


that it was just a funny, jolly way to make 
the very little children enjoy the fun of 
Christmas surprises. You told me then that 
I might help toward Christmas myself by 
trinmiing the tree. That was to be my part: 
each year I was to do it all myself and every 
year I tried to make it some new and lovely 
kind of a siu*prise. I always have loved to 
fix the tree. I always have felt that it must 
be the kind of a tree that the little Christ Child 
would love if he came in the way that I used to 
think you meant when I was still little.” 

“Your tree has always been a beautiful 
tree, Mary Elizabeth,” Mother smiled. “It 
has always been a tree that shone with happi- 
ness. Each year we have loved it so that the 
children could not bear to part with it at New 
Years, you know.” 

Mary Elizazbeth smiled. But her question 
still remained unanswered. “Will there be a 
tree this year?” she asked. “I’m afraid the 
children would be sad without it. Mother.” 

“I, too, have been thinking, Mary Eliza- 
beth,” said Mother. “It is indeed a soldierly 
Christmas. What do you think we had better 
do?” 


198 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


“Well,” answered Mary Elizabeth, 
thoughtfully. “We have the ornaments, 
though I usually buy some new ones. I would 
have to get candles. The tree would not cost 
so very much, only it seems as if every penny 
ought to go to the little French and Belgian 
children — and there are the soldiers to send 
things to — and when everything is the way it 
is, why it really hardly seems like Christmas!” 

“I know,” returned Mother. “But we sent 
all the money in the children’s bank and all 
your money and my money, Mary Elizabeth. 
We have the soldiers’ things all done — almost. 
I think we ought to have the tree for the chil- 
dren and you can fix it up somehow, can’t 
you?” 

“Yes,” smiled Mary Elizabeth, but she was 
thinking that she must somehow find a way to 
make that tree as pretty as usual — even with- 
out any money to buy things ! 

That day and the next, Mary Elizabeth 
pondered the question. She thought of this 
and of that but nothing seemed quite right. 
There was no way to earn any money. And 
the tree had no star for the top. It had been 
lost, somehow. It was not with the tree fix- 


MARY Elizabeth’s soldierly Christmas 199 


ings in the box in the attic! How to get a new 
star, that was one question. How to get the 
candles was another. And Mary Elizabeth’s 
tree had always been a tree that people came 
in to look at and admire. It was not like any 
other tree. It was always a surprise, some- 
how. Money was needed to buy things to 
make it wonderful. Money was needed to 
make it a bright surprise as usual! 

At school, Mary Elizabeth foimd herself 
puzzling over this problem as vacation time 
drew near. It was harder for her than any 
arithmetic problem, for it could not be solved 
at all. Twice she saved five cents by walking 
home and that bought candles. But the prob- 
lem remained as usual. It was how to get 
more money. 

Then there came the day when the magazine 
came. It was always something of an event 
when the magazine came. It had new pictures 
in it and often it had cut-out pages for the 
little children. Once there had been a circus 
with clowns to cut out and ever since that 
time. Brother somehow got hold of the paper 
as soon as Mother took it from its wrapper. 
He was always hoping for more circus, you 


200 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


know. He knew its pages by heart and 
spelled out the titles and headings of the pic- 
tures. When Mary Elizabeth came home one 
day, he announced that the magazine had 
come. 

“What’s in it?” questioned Mary Elizabeth. 

“Pictures,” Brother replied mysteriously, 
“but not any of a circus. It’s a puzzle page. 
You have to guess what the pictures are and 
they’ll give a prize of five dollars to the one 
who answers and tells what the pictures are.” 
But Brother was still busy with the magazine 
and Mary Elizabeth was called away to help 
Mother with the little sister. She did not 
see the page, though she thought about it and 
wondered if she could answer all the questions 
and get the money that way to trim the Christ- 
mas tree. In the evening, after supper, after 
the little children had gone off to bed and 
Brother, too, with them, she found the maga- 
zine and looked it over. Yes, it was a contest. 
And the pictures were Mother Goose. It 
seemed easy to guess them — Mary Elizabeth 
guessed Simple Simon right away. It was 
the picture of a funny doll fishing in a little 
pail with a hook and line. She tried the others. 


MARY ELIZABETH’S SOLDIERLY CHRISTMAS 201 


She was not so sure of all but she guessed them 
with the help of the little children’s Mother 
Goose to refresh her memory. She was so 
excited that she felt the prize was already hers. 
She was sure she must win! 

Just think of it: the first prize was five 
whole dollars and the second prize was two 
whole dollars and there were eight other prizes 
each of one whole big dollar — ^ten chances that 
Mary Elizabeth might earn some money for 
her Christmas tree! Her hands shook as she 
took up pen and put it to paper. She used 
her very best paper and three times or more 
she discarded what she had written and tried 
to do better. She wrote with extreme pains 
and slowly. It took all the the evening just 
to write the short answer. She put it into its 
envelope to mail on the way to school next 
day, but she said nothing about it as she kissed 
Mother good-night. 

Nearer and nearer came Christmas time. 
The little children talked more than ever about 
Santa Claus. Brother planned what kind of 
a stocking he would hang up. They talked 
about the tree and asked Mary Ehzabeth 
what she supposed Santa Claus would make 


202 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


as a tree surprise this year. At these times, 
laughingly, Mary Elizabeth suggested that 
there would be candles on the tree and that 
perhaps there would be tinsel. She said that, 
maybe, Santa Claus would send all his Christ- 
mas to the little French and Belgian children 
and not have much to make into a surprise 
here at home. She told them stories about 
Santa Claus and the Santa Claus Land. She 
played with them to keep them amused but 
she thought all the time of the Mother Goose 
Contest and as time went on, she felt less sure 
each day of having won. Once she passed by 
the ten cent store and found a beautiful gold 
star and wanted to buy it. Then one day 
Mary Elizabeth actually found a ten cent 
piece near a shop upon a busy sidelwalk in 
town. Her heart went thump at the sight of 
it. She asked several persons if they had lost 
anything and they replied, “No.” So Mary 
Elizabeth went straight to the ten cent store 
and bought a star, right away. 

All this time, Mary Elizabeth watched 
anxiously for the postman. The time set for 
the close of the contest came and passed. No 
letter was brought to Mary Elizabeth. She 


MARY ELIZABETH’S SOLDIERLY CHRISTMAS 203 


knew that she would have had a letter if she 
had won any prize, of course. But Mary 
Elizabeth, with her heart heavy as lead, won- 
dered whether she had really ever believed she 
‘would win. She admitted that she had. She 
was sure her work was right — that is, all 
answers were correct. The writing was neat. 
There were no blots. She had done her very 
best. 

Mary Elizabeth was too soldierly to cry. 
She told nobody. She set about planning 
how she would cut paper ornaments out of 
colored wall papers and paste them together. 
She would make some paper dolls and dress 
them like fairies with the tissue paper she had. 
She would make wings with tissue paper, too. 
She would ask Mother to let her make some 
gingerbread animals and men to use on the 
tree. She would gild some nuts and pine- 
cones maybe. There was the star. There was 
the box of candles. Those were something! 
But if only she did have money, she would 
trim her tree with the emblems of all the 
Allies and have a really soldierly Christmas- 
tree! 

Mary Elizabeth went into her room and 


204 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


locked her door tight. She took the key of 
her lo>wer bureau drawer and sat down upon 
the floor beside it and drew^ it out. In it lay 
all the Christmas tree things with the box of 
candles and the star. As she looked at the 
bright Christmas things, a tear dropped upon 
her lap — oh, it might have been so different! 

Why is it that when one is just in the midst 
of Christmas planning somebody comes to the 
door and knocks? Did you ever spread all 
your things out on a bed or a table or on the 
floor and fail to have somebody come to knock 
at your door and demand to be let in right 
away? There came a knock at Mary Eliza- 
beth’s — but first, the latch had been tried. 
“Let me in, Mary Elizabeth!” cried Brother. 

“I can’t,” returned Mary Elizabeth. 

“You can.” 

Thump-thumpety-thump. 

“Go ’way,” admonished Mary Elizabeth. 
“I shan’t let you in! You can’t come in.” 

“Well, you’ll be sorry,” said the muffled 
voice of Brother. “You’ll be sorry,” but he 
left off knocking at the door and ran away. 
Mary Elizabeth wondered if perhaps he sus- 
pected about the play of Santa Claus. He 


MARY ELIZABETH’S SOLDIERLY CHRISTMAS 205 


was getting to be quite big. Maybe he knew 
about the tree. Maybe he would have to be 
let into the fun of Christmas planning next 
year — but was it fun? Wasn’t it dreadful to 
worry about the tree and plan how to make 
it all new? No, it was not worry! No, it was 
not! Mary Elizabeth denied this stoutly. It 
was part of the self-sacrifice of Christmas to 
think about it as she had — and there would be 
a lovely tree! Yes, there would, somehow; 
she’d manage to make a grand surprise of it. 
Oh, yes, she would. Mary Elizabeth smiled 
and was ashamed of that little hot tear. She 
put the Christmas tree things back into the 
drawer one by one and she closed and locked 
the drawer. Then she went to the window 
and looked out across the snow. She thought 
maybe some cotton would look pretty and 
snowy on the tree like that. She heard 
Brother at the door again but she wasn’t quite 
ready to let him in. She wanted to be alone 
and think. She did not want to tell stories 
about Santa Claus. 

His little voice came plaintively, ‘‘Please, 
Mary Elizabeth, let me in. I’ll tell you some- 
thing nice, if you’ll let me in.” But Mary 


206 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Elizabeth was not ready to hear what Brother 
thought Santa Claus was going to bring. 
She did not go to the door. Then she heard 
his soft little footsteps trot away down the 
hall and she felt sorry. She opened the door 
to run after him and there, where Brother had 
left it, there lay a big square envelope with 
the name of the magazine upon it! 

Mary Elizabeth gasped. She tore it open 
and read: 

Dear Mary Elizabeth: 

Your good work has merited the re- 
ward of the Second Prize of two dollars 
offered in the Mother Goose Contest. 
The money is enclosed and we hope that 
it will bring with it a Very Happy 
Christmas! 

Happy Christmas! Hooray! Oh, how 
fine! Happy Christmas — why, of course. 
Happy Christmas! Wasn’t it splendid! 
Wasn’t it a surprise! Waving the letter, she 
hugged everybody that she met. Brother, 
Mother and all the children. Soimething 
splendid had happened, they all agreed. 


MARY ELIZABETH’S SOLDIERLY CHRISTMAS 207 


Everybody congratulated Mary Elizabeth. 
But only Mother really guessed why Mary 
Elizabeth didn’t spend it all right then and 
there the very first day in buying candy and 
peanuts. That was v^hat Brother and the 
little children suggested. 

But next day, after vacation had really 
begun and when the little children and Brother 
were safely out of the way, Mary Elizabeth 
with her little red kid purse shpped out of the 
house and off to buy the flags of the Allies to 
use for the Christmas tree. 

Mary Elizabeth had decided, too, what the 
Christmas surprise was to be. Yes, it should 
be a tree covered with flags and Old Glorj^ 
should be with the star at the top ! 

And then came tree-trimming! And the 
tree was — oh, oh, it was ever so much more 
wonderful than any tree had ever been before. 
Everybody said so! The little children said 
so. Brother said so ! Mary Ehzabeth herself 
knew it was so! All the httle poor children 
who came to the tree said so! 

It was Mother, however, who knew about 
the very soldierly Santa Claus that had made 
the tree so lovely. ‘Tt honored the little Christ 


208 


THE SURPRISE BOOK 


Child’s Birthday, dear,” she said as she kissed 
Mary Elizabeth good-night. ‘‘It is the tree 
of the soldiers who are fighting for all that 
Christmas means.” 

“The star was there,” replied Mary Eliza- 
beth. 


CONCLUSION 

The Last Leaf of the Surprise Booh 

The last leaf of Marjorie’s Surprise Book 
was very, very thin. It did not make Marjorie 
poke and feel and wonder what was inside its 
pocket. It was marked to open at the Christ- 
mas tree. So the first thing that she did was 
to pull its Christmas seals off and read what 
was written inside: 

“ I hope you will always be happy — 

As happy as you can be, 

As happy as all the happy times 
That you have shared with me.’* 

“I made that up,” said Dotty, proudly. ‘T 
did it all myself.” Really, I think that Mar- 
jorie’s Surprise Book belonged to both lit- 
tle girls, don’t you? But which one do you 
suppose liked it best? Was it Marjorie or 
was it Dotty? What do you think? For my- 
self, I think it was the one who made it and 
gave it and thought it and planned it all. So, 


210 


THE SURPRISE ROOK 


Inaybe, there is somebody that you love to 
whom, you, too, would like to give a Surprise 
Book like this of Marjorie’s. 

And because I myself love all you children, 
I am giving you the story of a Surprise Book 
right here — now! 


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